Some Games Copy and Some Games Plagiarize
Brendan Greene, PLAYERUNKNOWN himself, predicted his brainchild would have copycats, but he hoped they would stand on their own. That doesn’t seem to be the case with two mobile titles, who PUBG Corp have deemed worthy of an infringement lawsuit.
Battle Royale games have become all the rage, so no one can fault other IPs for taking inspiration from the likes of PUBG and Fortnite. However—argue over creative freedom all you want, it seems a couple of games in the Appstore are copying what few things make PUBG unique. Reported by TorrentFreak, Chinese gaming giant NetEase is being sued by PUBG Corp. According to the latter, the former is cutting things to close in mimicking their game’s DNA.
NetEase has published two games that have allegedly plagiarized the popular battle royale Title. Those two games are Rules of Survival and Knives Out. From the vehicles to the map layout to the pre-play area, the experience is practically a mobile mirror. Further, PUBG Corp claims their “Chicken Dinner” catchphrase was employed in the games’ marketing. But it doesn’t stop there. Apparently, YouTubers and Streamers who play these alleged copycat games are calling them PUBG. Albeit, they are probably doing so mistakenly, which factors into the lawsuit as well.
PUBG Corp alleges that NetEase entered its games into the mobile market before PUBG with the intent of confusing the public. Thus, we have users mistaking one property for the other. Therefore, the lawsuit seeks to remove Knives Out and Rules of Survival from the mobile market. You can read more about it at TorrentFreak.
Any thoughts on the lawsuit and these PUBG copycats? Was the cloning taken to far this time? Let us know in the comments down below.
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