After Its Lawsuit, PUBG Dev Is Cool With Fortnite Studio Epic Games Now

The relationship between Fortnite developer and publisher Epic Games and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp. was believed to be somewhat fractious, given the two games' competition--not to mention PUBG Corp.'s attempted suing of Epic less than two years ago. However, PUBG Corp.'s studio director, Brian Corrigan, has now claimed that couldn't be further from the truth. He told PCGamesN: "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!"

The relationship between the two companies is complicated. PUBG Corp. filed a lawsuit against Epic back in 2017, shortly after proclaiming its "growing concerns regarding the similarities between the battle royale mode in Epic Games' newly revealed Fortnite and PUBG." The legal case was later dropped.

PUBG Corp.'s parent company, Bluehole, has an ongoing licensing agreement with Epic for the latter's Unreal Engine development tool, which PUBG uses. In addition, both companies are now part-owned by the same corporation, Tencent.

While Epic openly cited PUBG as a key inspiration behind its Battle Royale mode, the latter has since borrowed ideas from Fortnite, which has gone on to be incredibly successful. Fortnite popularized the Seasons and Battle Pass format of updates, for example, and PUBG has just begun its fourth season.