[amazon_link asins=’B06Y42G518,B0752D7PQF,B071WNVX56,B074ZS1CGM’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’peterfaden-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’d97f4d8d-a14a-11e7-a024-43c133717570′]You might recall that I published an article the other day entitled “Sprinkled With Salt: H1Z1 vs PUBG vs Fortnite“, which detailed the rift between these developers as it pertains to the burgeoning Battle Royale genre of games. PlayerUnknown is widely accepted to be the creator of the genre despite there having been previous, unsuccessful attempts by other developers, such as with the game Down To One for example. However, that is neither here nor there despite the claim that PUBG was the first of the subgenre. Rather, I wanted to report on Bluehole’s most recent press release, wherein they clarify their position against Epic Games, creator of the Unreal Engine 4 used in PUBG and also the creators of the game Fortnite, which mentions PUBG in its own advertising for Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode. Here is a copy of the most recent press release from Bluehole, as first presented by PC Gamer yesterday as a correspondence between them and Bluehole. Please note that PC Gamer was directly contacted by Bluehole, and this is a direct copy of parts of their correspondence as linked above. I think it clearly illustrates Bluehole really taking exception to Epic Games piggybacking PUBG to sell Fortnite while also hiding parts of the Unreal Engine 4 for use exclusively in Fortnite despite Bluehole having paid for the rights to fully use UE4 for PUBG.
PC Gamer: So it’s not the mode you guys have an issue with. From your statement or your press release earlier today, it said that there were similarities in the UI, and the other things mentioned were the gameplay and structural replication in the battle royale mode. Can you specify exactly, if you’re not objecting to a battle royale mode in another game, then what do you mean by concerns about gameplay?
There are a lot of different issues but everyone else that released a battle royale game mode made their own thing, but it was Epic Games that made this game that is similar to us that has similar elements, and that’s the concern, that it was Epic Games.
We use Unreal Engine to develop PUBG, and we pay a large amount of royalties based on the size of our success to Epic Games, and Epic Games always promoted their licensing models [saying] “We want to support the success indie developers”, and [Bluehole is] this indie developer that has been the most successful one using the Unreal Engine this year, and that’s the problem that I see.
It was just a bit surprising and disappointing to see our business partner using our name officially to promote the game mode
When they used your name, was that in official promotional materials?
Sammie Kang: It was in their promotional video that was posted on Twitter and they would openly mention that they were fans of PUBG, we wanted to make this battle royale game mode, and that kind of gave the impression that we were officially involved in this.
So they were giving the impression that you guys were on board and were a part of this, and in no way were you.
Sammie Kang: Right, and there were players like, “Oh it’s cool, now we get to play PUBG in Fortnite”, and there was nothing we could do about it, because it was depicted that we were officially involved.
