Bluehole, the development studio behind PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, has said it is "concerned" by how similar Fortnite's recently announced Battle Royale mode is to its game, and is contemplating "further action".
In a press release, Bluehole vice president Chang Han Kim explained the connection between his company and Fortnite's developer, Epic, as well as his issue with the extremely similar mode:
“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. 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.
“We have also noticed that Epic Games references PUBG in the promotion of Fortnite to their community and in communications with the press. This was never discussed with us and we don’t feel that it’s right.
“The PUBG community has and continues to provide evidence of the many similarities as we contemplate further action.”
The press release goes on to cite Fortnite's "User Interface (UI), gameplay and structural replication in the battle royale mode" as its causes for concern.
Battlegrounds offers 100 player deathmatches in an 8 x 8km map. Fortnite's take is practically identical, with the addition of crafting and environmental destruction.
We called the latter's new mode "eerily similar" to PUBG, and said it was "missing a plethora of quality of life features." We did, however, enjoy the potential of its crafting mechanics.
PlayerUnknown himself, Brendan Greene had previously used a Reddit AMA to give his opinion on games including a take on his incredibly successful project: “Other companies will, of course, enter the marketplace, but I would just hope they put their own spin on the game mode and not just make a carbon copy!”
Aside from Fortnite's new free-to-play mode, GTA Online recently added a Battle Royale activity to its Smuggler's Run update, while a new game, Project X aims to allow for over 400-player battle royale matches.
There's a good reason for that - PUBG has amassed over 10 million sales in Early Access alone, breaking Steam records for highest concurrent player count as it did so.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor and everytime he reads "100 player", he just thinks about how he wants a new 1 vs. 100 game. Follow him on Twitter.
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