PUBG developer sues Apple and Google for distributing a clone game

Crafton, publisher and developer of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, has filed a lawsuit in the United States against Apple and Google, among others. The lawsuit revolves around Free Fire and Free Fire MAX, which Crafton says infringes the company’s copyrights and is on the app stores.

free fire in a Free Fire Max They are two battle royale games released by developer Garena. He’s called Crafton That these games are very similar to PUBG and thus infringe the copyright of the developer. A striking detail is that Garena started selling Free Fire mobile game in 2017, shortly after the first release of PUBG. Crafton contacted Garena, after which “the two companies came to an agreement.” The PUBG publisher asserts that this has not given Garena permission to use PUBG’s copyrights.

Around September 2021, Garena released Free Fire MAX. Both games are available on Android and iOS through Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Crafton says that both games are infringing his copyright and copying many aspects of PUBG. Thus, both games start the match in a similar way, with players jumping out of a plane and having to parachute onto an island. The company says that “the collection and selection of weapons, armor, unique objects, locations, and general choice of colors, materials, and textures” are similar in the two games, as is the gameplay.

Crafton says Garena made “hundreds of millions of dollars” selling the two games worldwide. Apple and Google will also make a “big amount of money” by showing games in stores. In addition, these two companies could have collected a lot of user and sales data from the sale of the two games.

South Korean company PUBG said it asked Apple and Google to stop distributing and selling Free Fire games in December 2021. However, they did not. So Crafton is asking in court to stop the sale of these games and to pay the company an undisclosed amount in compensation. The lawsuit also covers game maker Garena, as well as YouTube. This platform is said to show gameplay videos of Free Fire, which Krafton also wants offline.

As far as is known, Apple and Google have yet to respond. Garena spokesperson says to the lip Crafton’s allegations are unfounded. The Verge also says, based on analysts, that Free Fire games seem to be growing at the expense of PUBG. This would explain why Crafton has now decided to sue Garena.