PUBG Developer Bluehole "Concerned" About Fortnite's Battle Royale Mode

Jason Winter
By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted:
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Years ago, seemingly every developer was trying to ride the wave of MMORPGs and releasing their own. Then everyone was doing MOBAs, then CCGs, then team-based hero shooters.

Now, in the wake of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' runaway success, the new hotness is battle royale-style games. On that level, it shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise that Epic Games announced its own BR mode in Fortnite, which you can play next week. (After this article was published, the dev team also gave some details on how the mode is coming along on the public test server.)

But one developer/publisher has taken issue at Epic Games' foray into BR territory -- and that's the makers of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds itself, Bluehole Studios.

In a statement released today, Bluehole "responds to community concern surrounding Fortnite's Battle Royale Mode." We're not sure who in the community is "concerned" but we'll go with that for now. The press release on the matter calls PUBG "the first standalone Battle Royale survival shooter game" and will "contemplate further action" against Epic and Fortnite.

(NOTE: This link is the only place we could find the full statement from Bluehole. It doesn't seem to be available over any official channels, and none of the other news sites where we've seen this story reported confirm that they received it directly from Bluehole. We're inclined to believe it's legitimate, but there's a non-zero chance it could be part of an elaborate hoax. We've reached out to Bluehole and will update this piece if we learn anything different.)

(UPDATE: We've received confirmation from Bluehole Studio that the above statement is legitimate.)

So is this just sour grapes over someone else creating a similar game? Yes, to some extent, but Bluehole maybe has some kind of additional reasons to raise a beef. Epic Games is the maker of Unreal Engine 4, which is also licensed to Bluehole for PUBG. Additionally, Epic specifically called out PUBG in its announcement of its BR mode, saying "We love Battle Royale games like PUBG and thought Fortnite would make a great foundation for our own version."

That's hardly the first time a game has compared itself to other successful games to try and lure players -- or think of any movie that says "From the makers of" (something popular). And I doubt there's anything in the UE4 licensing agreement that prevents Epic -- or any other company -- from making a BR-style game with it. The whole press release comes off as petty and a little childish, especially when it concludes with this statement:

In a recent Reddit AMA (e.g. Ask Me Anything) session, Brendan Greene (aka PLAYERUKNOWN) was asked about other companies replicating the Battle Royale experience:

"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!"

Considering its focus on building and generally different graphical look, I don't think you could claim Fortnite Battle Royale is a "carbon copy" of the more realistic-looking PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. But hey, maybe that's just me.

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About the Author

Jason Winter
Jason Winter, News Editor

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

More Stories by Jason Winter

Discussion (22)

Wololo 6 years ago
Lol. There's literally Ark Survival of the Fittest.

ooooo 6 years ago
Good. Stop them in their tracks before they turn the game into another arena shooter.

BLUEHOLESTUDIOS 6 years ago
Hey guys thanks for the feedback. Any publicity it's good publicity! Am I right?..... Guys?

Kevin Flemming 6 years ago
PUBG is a buggy load of shite, made by nobodies anyway. Not surprising they're getting pissy about something that isn't even a problem. Battle Royale is just a name. It's like Sky trying to sue for the name No Man's Sky.

mikedeboom 6 years ago
can see it now after seeing this leak they will now see a leak in their crowd funding.. bluehole studios sure made a mess up now. If they go any further which i believe they will because they are trash to start with.. Almost makes me think they are a certain developer who created trash games to gain a few bucks in the past and acting out in the same matter, but much harsher.

Buggy 6 years ago
They call themselves the first standalone Battle Royale style game developer wow much copyright much. I remember it was Arma then H1Z1 that had the Battle Royale mode incorporated in their game now fortnite has it and PUBG is saying they own the rights to BR mode and they made it first like some brain dead idiots.

View 1 reply
rickshaw 6 years ago
Lol what a bunch of losers they stole the name from a movie .
THEY HAVE NO RIGHTS.
I think the movie director & its producers of battle royale movie should go after punkybattface spolit brats & sue em.

View 2 replies
butthurt much? 6 years ago
ha butthurthole studios, haven't they sold 1 million copies of their game so far? also they would probably still have buyers, after this mode releases for free from the fortnite team.

Weilan 6 years ago
Bluehole Studios should rename themselves to Butrhole Studios after this pathetic move

View 1 reply
Weilan 6 years ago
what a bumch of babies, i was seriously thinking of buying PUBG in the future, now i will never buy a game by such immature people, i mean babies

same 6 years ago
wasn't the h1z1 actually the first suvival mode or im missing here something..

View 1 reply
Milokkissd 6 years ago
another example proving that developers/publishers are pure cancer. they are pure vomit. they should all be sued for poluting this world

Malice666 6 years ago
Next headline. Epic withdraws engine use rights from Bluehole..

Mogar 6 years ago
So they made a game, based on a game-mode, based on a movie, that's based on a novel and are complaining about another game having a game-mode based on it?

What.

They lost all and any respect I've had for Bluehole.

View 1 reply
Mouhsine 6 years ago
the battle royal is just a game mode like death match..there is also survival mode which basically the battle royal in CS global offensive this game was made ages before PUBG..and who knows maybe some older games also have that mode...Bluehole just took that mode and made a whole game about...so that does not make Bluehole the first company in the history of gaming to make a multiplayer FPS "survival mode" and considering it an exclusivity plus calling any other company that adapt this mode to their games a "copy past" or “carbon copy”...PUBG is just lucky to be in top among the so many FPS+open world multiplayer games in the market and i don't think that luck will last for to long...


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