PUBG creator isn't happy with all the copycats, wants better IP protection

Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene, creator of PUBG, wants video games to follow film and music's model of copyright protection.

Greene isn't particularly fond of the many PUBG copycats out there who cloned his work, saying that games need to have some form of protection against these practises to protect the intellectual property and the work of their creators.

Although he didn't specifically drop any names, Greene said that he doesn't want others to lift the design whole cloth. "I want other developers to put their own spin on the genre... not just lift things from our game," he said on the BBC Radio 1 Gaming Show, via Newsbeat.

"In movies and music, there is IP protection and you can really look after your work. In gaming that doesn't exist yet, and it's something that should be looked into."

In particular, the designer lamented how big publishers can sometimes take an idea established by a small, under-the-radar title and call it their own, because they can afford to make it popular by spending much more on it than the smaller team could.

With that in mind, Greene added that he's not trying to shut down anyone who copies elements from his game. In fact, he says he wants the genre he helped create to grow and that can only happen, according to him, when other developers find new and interesting ways to expand it.

"For [the genre to grow] you need new and interesting spins on the game mode. If it's just copycats down the line, then the genre doesn't grow and people get bored," said Greene.

Although we haven't seen that many clones in the West, China is full of them. Whether it be on mobile, or PC, Chinese PUBG clones are a real problem. Unlike games like Fortnite where it introduces unique elements, these clones copy everything down to the art style and balance changes.