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PUBG drops Fortnite copyright lawsuit as the battle ends in a draw

PUBG drops Fortnite copyright lawsuit as the battle ends in a draw

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Photo credit: Bluehole

Korean company PUBG, a subsidiary of Bluehole, has dropped its lawsuit against Fortnite makers Epic Games. The PUBG owners originally filed the lawsuit earlier this year, alleging copyright infringement against Epic Games. While PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds soared in popularity last year, Epic Games introduced its own battle royale mode in Fortnite with similar features all built on the same Unreal Engine 4 that was created and licensed by Epic Games.

Bloomberg reports that the lawsuit has been dropped, but it’s not clear why and whether there was any settlement between PUBG and Epic Games. PUBG developer Bluehole previously revealed it had “growing concerns” about the similarities between the two games, and it’s a battle that seemed to be boiling over into the courts with this lawsuit.

Both Epic Games and PUBG developer Bluehole are part-owned by Tencent Holdings, and Tencent has reportedly been nearing a deal to increase its PUBG investment to 10 percent. While it’s unlikely a copyright infringement accusation could complicate that deal, the lawsuit would be difficult to prove and win particularly when Fortnite has copied PUBG’s ideas and not necessarily its content.

Fortnite continues to grow in popularity despite the squabbles. Fortnite surpassed PUBG in monthly revenue in March, and the game now has 125 million players a year after launch. Fortnite has also been at the center of a cross-play controversy with Sony after the PlayStation 4 maker blocked players from accessing their Fortnite PS4 accounts on the Nintendo Switch.