ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

​PUBG Has Reportedly Filed A Lawsuit Against Fortnite

​PUBG Has Reportedly Filed A Lawsuit Against Fortnite

According to a report by the Korea Times, Korea-based PUBG Corps has filed a lawsuit against Epic Games for copyright violation

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

Fortnite - the massively popular survival game from Epic Games - seems pretty much unstoppable, with a community of several million users worldwide all absolutely hooked.

But there could be something about to step in its way, in the form of a lawsuit against the gaming company.

According to a report by the Korea Times, Korea-based PUBG Corps - a subsidiary of BlueHole and developers of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds - has filed a lawsuit against Epic Games for copyright violation.

The newspaper reports that PUBG filed the injunction against Epic back in January, alleging copyright infringement, and that the Seoul Central District Court will have to decide whether or not Fortnite copied the PUBG game.

It's not exactly clear about the nature of the lawsuit, but The Gamer reports that the two firms have been at loggerheads for some time now, after Fortnite released its own 'battle royale' mode that had been made popular by PUBG.

BlueHole has previously spoken out about similarities between Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, shortly after the release of Fortnite: Battle Royale in September last year.

"We've had an ongoing relationship with Epic Games throughout PUBG's development as they are the creators of UE4, the engine we licensed for the game," said Chang Han Kim, who is the Vice President of BlueHole and executive producer.

"After listening to the growing feedback from our community and reviewing the gameplay for ourselves, we are concerned that Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known."

Epic Games

Even more confusingly, The Gamer explains that both companies are owned - at the highest level - by Tencent, which is the world's largest investment corporation. We imagine Tencent won't be particularly affected by all this... if anything, it's probably just feeling like a weary mum wanting her kids to give it a rest.

Not long ago, we reported that Epic Games was involved in another chunk of legal action - but that time, it involved Epic suing two Fortnite players for cheating, as their actions violated terms of service for the game.

It transpired that one of the players was a 14-year-old boy - whose mother desperately tried to help out by trying to dismiss the case in a letter to the court.

However, the latest filing for the case, which has been obtained by TorrentFreak, reveals that Epic is ploughing on with the its lawsuit, regardless of these points.

According to the filing, the boy posted a live-streamed video of himself cheating while playing the game, demonstrating 'his use of the cheat to unlawfully modify the Fortnite game code' and instructing viewers 'as to how to use the cheat in the same way'.

Featured Image Credit: Epic Games

Topics: GAMING