PUBG Dev Team Files Copyright Lawsuit Against Mobile Copycats

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) publisher, PUBG Corp have filed a copyright lawsuit against Chinese developer NetEase over their mobile titles Rules of Survival and Knives Out. PUBG Corp are suing NetEase over the similarities between PUBG and NetEase’s mobile titles.

While not creating the concept of a battle royale, PUBG was the first title to find a large amount of success. Even though Epic Game’s take on the battle royale genre, Fortnite has gone on to surpass the title in cultural relevance, PUBG has still sold an impressive 30 million units according to Steam Spy’s latest figures.

The success of PUBG has earned PUBG Corp millions of dollars in profit, but the company has stated that this figure would have been higher if it weren’t for the release of several titles similar in nature to PUBG.

With the release of PUBG on mobile imminent, PUBG Corp stated that NetEase’s mobile titles were an attempt to gain a portion of their market share through copying several crucial elements seen in PUBG.

This was part of a larger complaint list, that topped 155 pages of complaints and copyright infringements. The detailed list includes various assets such as; buildings, vehicles, clothing, weapons and even the shrinking gameplay area seen in PUBG.

PUBG Corp requested that the court orders NetEase to remove all instances of copyright infringement, as well as the Knives Out and Rules of Survival from mobile stores.