‘PUBG’ maker targets Apple, Google, YouTube in copycat game suit
The makers of the multiplayer hit game “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (PUBG) has sued a Singapore company for allegedly making rip-off versions of its game as well as Apple and Google for publishing it on its app stores.
According to the complaint filed in a California district court on Monday, 10 January, the mobile game “Free Fire” “extensively copies” hundreds of aspects of PUBG’s gameplay, user interface, in-game items and visuals.
Among these, PUBG’s developer Krafton highlights the copying of PUBG’s copyrighted “air drop” feature in which players can obtain equipment from supply boxes parachuted into the game area.
“Free Fire” developer Garena has sold the game through the Apple and Google Play stores since 2017, and launched a follow-up called “Free Fire MAX” last year, according to the complaint.
Krafton is also targeting both Apple and Google in the lawsuit, claiming that the two app store giants “wrongly” authorised the distribution of “hundreds of millions” of downloads of the game.
The complaint includes numerous screenshots comparing visual similarities in both games, including several instances of Garena copying “iconic” imagery from PUBG such as using frying pans as a melee weapon and players skydiving to join the gameplay arena.
“Free Fire” is also massively popular, hosting more than 100 million daily users by the end of 2020, not far off PUBG Mobile’s 120 million daily players across both the main version of the game and its Chinese version, “Game for Peace”, according to Business of Apps.
Targetting YouTube
Alongside Garena, Google and Apple, Krafton has also listed YouTube as a defendant in the complaint, claiming that the video-sharing giant has engaged in infringement by hosting “countless” videos of “Free Fire” gameplay, some of which have been viewed more than one million times.
Krafton has also accused YouTube of continuing to host videos of a feature-length Chinese film “Biubiubiu”, which Krafton claims is an “unauthorised adaptation” of PUBG, despite having flagged the videos with the website.
In response to Krafton’s Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedown request, YouTube responded by stating that “copyright does not subsist in the content that is the subject of
[Krafton’s] complaint” and for “[that] reason we are unable to process your request”.
YouTube had previously delisted videos of another film called “Run Amuck” which Krafton had also flagged as infringing its copyrights, making the website's response “inconsistent” according to Krafton.
Garena games
As well as developing “Free Fire”, Garena games acts as a publisher and developer for several other popular mobile games, generating more than $2 billion in revenue by 2020.
The company has published several popular multiplayer games such as “League of Legends”, “Path of Exile” and “Call of Duty: Mobile” in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Garena’s parent company Sea Limited even filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in 2017.
Krafton is seeking injunctions against Garena, its parent company, Apple and Google, and in the case of YouTube, the removal of videos featuring gameplay of “Free Fire” and the infringing film “Biubiubi”.
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