The popularity of battle royale games like “Fortnite” and “Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds” (or “PUBG”) has lead to many satisfied and entertained consumers, bringing in money left and right.
Since the explosion in player count since the fall of 2017, games under this genre have had a seemingly endless popularity.
With massive amounts of money and popularity on the line, legal concerns have become a serious issue. The legal issues at hand have to do specifically with copyrights and intellectual property.
However, the two games have vastly different styles.
“PUBG” focuses on realism and slower paced gameplay, feeling a lot like a horror game. The play area or “map” of the game is large and spread out with 100 players searching and fighting with the goal of being the last one alive.
“Fortnite” has the same idea of being the last player alive, but focuses on more fast paced gameplay including building and a cartoony style.
Although the games have their many differences, the fundamental idea is still the same.
The question is, who came up with the idea first?
The major influence was the 2000 Japanese movie based on the book of the same name, “Battle Royale.” It featured a group of junior high students being sent to an island and forced to fight each other to the death.
It inspired a plethora of media based on this concept, from low-budget American films like “The Belko Experiment,” to Suzanne Collins’ “Hunger Games” novels and subsequent film adaptation.
Many games were created on this basic idea, with “PUBG” being the first popular implementation of the idea.
“PUBG” was released in March of 2017.
“Fortnite” was released in early 2017 as well, but a battle royale mode was added to the game well after the release of “PUBG”.
As with many other types of media, a plethora of knockoff games were released in an attempt to capitalize off of the success of the popular genre.
Although a great deal of these games get removed quickly for obvious infringement of copyright, many pop up quicker than the stores can control them.
Earlier this year, the creators of “PUBG” have looked into pursuing legal action against Epic Games, the creators of “Fortnite”, for creating a battle royale mode soon after the success of their own game.
This turn of events raises many questions on intellectual property and copyright, which has been a problem in the past with digital media.
Some people are worried issues may arise due to the fact that “PUBG” uses the Unreal game engine, which was created by Epic.
The game engine is licensed under an agreement between “PUBG” and Epic, with a section specifically stating that Epic can amend the agreement at anytime as long as the customer is notified.
Sean Kahle
Staff Writer