rtxn@lemmy.world 4 days ago
It’s been adjudicated before: you can’t. It’s the reason PUBG and Fortnite can coexist even though Epic completely ripped off PUBG after helping develop the game. It’s also why the “DOOM clone” genre was allowed to proliferate into the FPS genre, why there are so many FNAF-inspired games, and why Nintendo recently lost one of its Pokémon patents. You don’t own the concept of the Milgram experiment, you don’t own the trademark for the name, and the overall gameplay concept is not subject to copyright. Unless you can prove that the other developer stole code or art assets from you, or that it violated a trademark or patent that you own, there’s nothing you can do but hope that the better product wins in the end.
Fizz@lemmy.nz 4 days ago
how is fortnite a rip off of pubg? That was one of the dumbest lawsuits ever I cant believe people actually repeat that bs.
rtxn@lemmy.world 4 days ago
During development, PUBG’s developers worked closely with Epic for technical support of the Unreal Engine. At the time, Epic was developing a multiplayer sandbox game that focused on building fortifications and area defense. It was a little-known title called Fortnite.
PUBG launched into early access in March of 2017 and was an immediate massive success. Only half a year later, Epic launched Fortnite Battle Royale, which was a massive departure from the original Fortnite concept. It had the same genre as PUBG, it had the same game rules, the gameplay was nearly identical; and it retained barely anything from the original core gameplay loop of fortification-building. You’d have to be willfully ignorant on the level of flat earthers to think it’s all just an innocent coincidence.
Fizz@lemmy.nz 4 days ago
Pubg wasnt the first or only battle royal game. There were others that were blowing up before and during. Fortnite season 1 wasnt at all a rip off. They implemented a simple game type popular in several games at the time. Pubg got greedy and thought they owned the entire genre because they were blowing up. Theres no evidence that fortnite battle royal was released due to snooping by epic staff.
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Name a battle royale game that released before PUBG
RabbitBBQ@lemmy.world 3 days ago
What was unique about the PUBG / Unreal Engine situation is that Epic had only used the Unreal Engine for things like Unreal Tournament. They have a large set of customers who license their engine. When PUBG, which was originally created as an Arma mod (like DayZ), was moved to a standalone company by PlayerUnknown, they began looking for engines to rapidly rebuild what made Arma special. The bullet physics, look of the engine, environment and so on. They chose the Unreal engine.
PUBG took off as soon as the demo was released. There was an ongoing business relationship where PUBG developers worked with the Unreal engine developers to add features to the developer tools, and changes to the engine, to support features that PUBG needed. These changes of course were merged back into the main Unreal engine branch, and this allowed Epic to take the work for a battle royale game from the business association with PUBG, and rapidly cash in on the battle royale craze.
That’s what is different about this, versus just a company creating a clone. It was a dangerous thing to do from Epic’s point of view too because I’m sure there could be cases where other customers could see the engine company help them create an initial product, and then use that work to rip them off with a clone.
From a business practice standpoint, this is similar to what Amazon did with Amazon Basics. Where Amazon became the main, or only, online marketplace for many products. They ran reports and data to find which third party products were selling well on their site… And then they set up stuff like Amazon Basics to essentially copy them. Eventually due to the price and shipping advantage, and the Amazon name, the original products get replaced. And it feeds into Amazons profits.
Now with AI, all someone has to do is find out which games are popular and then drop some money on tokens to try to vibe code a competing game.
variouslegumes@reddthat.com 4 days ago
PUBG wasn’t the first battle royale. There were a few before it. In that era every studio was making one.
rtxn@lemmy.world 4 days ago
It was the first battle royale that anyone actually gave a shit about.
d00ery@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Third person battle royale. Having only ever seen videos of Fortnite the difference is primarily art style.
Fizz@lemmy.nz 4 days ago
Damn didnt realise a viewing angle and type is all you needed. Someone tell all 2d platformers that they’re clones.
Dashi@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I mean Nintendo’s lawsuit against Palworld for awhile was “throwing a spherical object” to catch things. Game IP law can get stupid.
Serinus@lemmy.world 4 days ago
This is what it sounds like when people defend the Steam monopoly btw.
valar@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
It’s the same game…
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Because Epic bad
That’s about as much thought these G*mers have.
Katana314@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Jesus Christ, now I have to make a new account to double downvote you; one for the shitty take, and one for unnecessary single-letter censorship.
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I’d rather not degrade myself by thinking of them as actual people.