There was a game that came out somewhat recently that would top many games on the Steam Most Bought list. It has so many players constantly playing to this day and have gained a massive following as to how huge the impact was when it exitted the beta phase. That game was Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds. Whoever made this game and whoever helped make it happen got millions upon its release. It was on everyone’s minds and eventually destroyed those on top in the most played list on steam. The game, as you can tell, was a masterpiece of game design and it was challenging to master. If the game is so famous to begin with, there has to be some clones to follow, right? Well, you’d be surprised. Hello and welcome to this mind opening thought blog.
As the game came out, there was one title struggling to gain some decent money. They almost lost the IP and the player base almost went as far as Battleborn, they panicked and made a free mode that anyone, even those who haven’t gotten the game, could play. It was Fortnite: Battle Royal. Carries similar aspect from PUBG, having players go all out on a large server on a small map that continuously got smaller as the match went on. It looked the same, but was far from what PUBG was. Despite that, the game gotten on top the most played and most bought with PUBG which bumped up the sales for Fortnite way up and raised its player base to an all time high for the game. This caught the eye of the PUBG developers and out came them talking about filing a lawsuit in any form of news media. The game was too similar and needed to be taken down, right? Well, you’d be wrong. Game Design isn’t an art according to law. It’s just a piece of gameplay, not an art piece on display in a Art Gallery. There are many people who copy many game designs on almost all platforms in games. If we had those things copywritten, the concept of genres would be gone and the market would crash due to low output on games to play. FPS’ wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for Doom Clones, so this lawsuit seems very silly if you think about it.
And come to think of it, the game isn’t the only one to have an all out brawl with a hundred people. Minecraft was kind of the start of it, fans making a server that was Hunger Games themed, but the server list was limited to only twenty or thirty people. Then there was the DayZ clone, H1Z1 which had a buyable mode that had players go against each other as they spawned in random areas and had to scavenge houses to find weapons and gear to kill each other with. Then, talking about more recent games, the Culling which was the most similar to both Battle Royal and Battlegrounds.
The Culling was considered a Hunger Games themed game, being picked by rich people to fight in an arena for their amusement and for you to gain something for yourself. Players had nothing on them besides their fists and had to find or craft what they could to survive. If you wanted to have some bandages you had to find it, get some leaves to craft it or buy with the money you get from a vending machine around the map. The map continuously got smaller and force players out from hiding to thin out the number of players. It was a fun game and was played by many people on youtube. It was a hit, but was hardly know to many people outside of the PC community, kind of like how Rust was. See, you raised your eyebrow in confusion as I said the name. So, the person that should feel like suing is Xaviant Games.
But why would even have the word of them talking about the lawsuit be out there? I mean, if you look at it, it can give your either bad side or a good side to the lawsuit, having people support one side or the other. I don’t know if that ever holds heavy in law, but it really gives the game a bigger notice. The news talk about the game that some people probably never heard of and it gave their attention to that game. You hear about and now you want to get it, assuming you never heard about it until that article. A marketing gimmick it seems, but it also gave both games attention. The question arise as to why they wanted to sue the people who made this mode similar to their own. It’s like how Mortal Kombat was when it became controversial, people talked so wrongful about, how it made anyone a killer and showed the worst kinds of gory graphics in the world just made kids want to play it even more in the arcades. After hearing that kind description really made you want to play a few rounds with Scorpion, eh? It gave the developers attention and the game was already in unwanted public attention, so the game became a successful hit that demanded sequels. Why give both attention to your game being high and mighty and the game that you claim is the enemy? Seems like you’re giving them a hand with their downloads, Player Unknown. I mean, there are so many mobile versions of your game, Player Unknown, that look so similar and copied from your game. Why not sue those Asia companies copying your game? I mean, they might not be in the same light as your game nor will ever be the same, but they pretty much copy all the assets from your game and made it mobile. There’s even a Minecraft one out there with the same iconic character with the helmet and explosion behind him, but it’s blocky instead. Why not strike your powerful fist on those companies? Probably because they’re small that probably don’t have much and doing that would look d**chy, but you do it to the big boy in town, Epic. No attention to those small guys down there in the mobile section.
It just seems stupid to me that they would sue someone over game design or a similar genre. It’s like as if From Software sued the people who made Surge or Lords of the Fallen. And seeing who they’re doing it to is kind of suspicious to me. Speaking about attacking a company for similar game design looks like it would have more to it that that, like someone slipped fifty grand in someone’s pocket in the elevator. I don’t know what could have gone, but I read that the lawsuit was never acted out, so this whole thing could be try or not. Maybe someone put some sense in Player Unknown, I don’t know. I know this is a strange post and probably didn’t go anywhere, but added more questions to a few month old thing that happened, but I hope you enjoyed this read. Thanks and ‘til next time…
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