The timer has ticked down, the circle has constricted, and the most colossal lawsuit royale of all – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds versus Fortnite – has astonishingly ended in a draw.
PUBG Corp. has dropped its legal case against Fortnite maker Epic Games this week, as reported by Bloomberg today.
The company behind PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds had sought compensation from Epic for allegedly copying the now widely-recognized battle royale formula.
However, after months of legal disputes, PUBG Corp. has unexpectedly withdrawn, without providing any public explanation for the reason.
Bloomberg’s report indicates that PUBG Corp. confirmed the lawsuit’s withdrawal – but did not disclose whether a settlement had been reached outside the court.
Anyhow, it’s not overly surprising to see the lawsuit concluded in this manner. PUBG Corp. and Epic Games have several shared interests: in the Chinese megacorp Tencent, which holds a stake in both companies, and the fact that PUBG utilizes Epic’s Unreal Engine.
And thus, we presume, the legal bickering between the two comes to an end.
The conflict started back in September last year when PUBG developer Bluehole criticized Fortnite for “replicating” the gameplay. At that time, the studio stated that it was “considering further actions”.
Bluehole officially filed its lawsuit against Epic in January, though both parties have refused to publicly comment on the matter since then. Certainly, the case hasn’t hindered Fortnite’s success – the game has achieved an astronomical success, with the fifth season of Fortnite content released just this morning.
We’ve reached out to both parties for their comments.
