Epic launches Fortnite Battle Royale, Bluehole gets salty

Okay, now we’re getting to it. In mid-September, Epic released a PvP module for Fortnite, titled, unscrupulously, Fort ni te Battle Roy ale. At the time

Player Unknown’ s Battle grounds was tearing up the Twitch and Steam charts, making a compelling case for being the most popular game in the world. Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene is one of the key figures of the battle royale genre (he was personally responsible for the Arma mods that initially made the mode popular), and the idea that Epic might be encroaching on PUBG’s turf caught developer, Bluehole’s attention.

“Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known,” read a press release from Bluehole, which also threatened “further action.”

“We have also noticed that Epic Games references PUBG in the promotion of Fortnite to their community and in communications with the press,” continued Bluehole vice president Chang Han Kim. “This was never discussed with us, and we don’t feel that it’s right.”

The copycat incident Chang Han Kim is referencing came in a Playstation blog post from Epic creative director Donald Mustard, who effectively told anyone complaining about Epic stealing PUBG’s ideas to kick rocks. “Yeah, we made a PvP mode for Fortnite,” he said. “We love battle royale games like PUBG and thought Fortnite would make a great foundation for our own version.”

At the time, it read as both depressing that Epic was jumping onto a multiplayer trend to inject some life into a flailing project, and petty that Bluehole seemed to think they deserved full ownership of a genre. Maybe they were right to be afraid. As a big stakeholder in Epic Games and the Chinese publisher for PUBG, Tencent wins either way.