Despite initially suing it over Fortnite Battle Royale, PUBG Corp. says it's now cool with Epic Games
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp. is on good terms with Fortnite maker Epic Games.
Back when PUBG was the king of the world and battle royale was fledgling subgenre, Epic Games pivoted Fortnite from a PvE game barely anyone cared about to a PvP battle royale competitor to PUBG.
Tensions ran high at the time, and it later got PUBG Corp. to sue Epic Games over the similarities between their two games, a lawsuit that didn't last long before PUBG Corp. dropped it.
Nowadays, though, things are swell between the two. Studio director Brian Corrigan told PCGamesN that Epic Games is one of PUBG Corp.'s best partners.
"People have this idea that there’s some animosity or something with Epic, but they’re one of our best partners, we talk to them all the time!" said Corrigan.
"When [PUBG] first came out – years ago now, I guess – the idea was to just sell a copy of the game, and it’s going to be great, and that’s that. A lot of the season stuff has been our internal thinking evolving over time," he added, further stressing that PUBG Corp. learns from other developers all the time.
PUBG Corp. knows, however, that not everything Fortnite does can work for PUBG, particularly in how the latter structures its seasonal events and battle passes.
"While I think we can learn a little bit from how that’s working over there, just like all games learn from each other, I don’t think their model exactly works for us.
"I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s not like we’re taking the blueprint over there and trying to build a better photocopier. That’s not it. If there’s pieces that work for us, that’s great, because we should learn from the best teachers across a lot of different games, but our formula is unique."
PUBG just kicked off its fourth season with a remaster of the game's original map: Erangel, and a paid battle pass. Fortnite's tenth season, on the other hand, should begin soon.