“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.”
– PUBG Corp’s Brian Corrigan details the relationship between it and Fortnite dev Epic Games.
Despite past animosity, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp says there’s no bad blood between it and Fortnite developer Epic Games, going so far as to tell PCGamesN that “they’re one of our best partners.”
In that conversation, which can be found in full here, PUBG Corp studio director Brian Corrigan explains that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite have grown into two quite different games, though they can learn lessons from one another.
“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,” says Corrigan. “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. That’s something we understand, and we have to always remember: this PUBG formula is unique, there really is nothing else out there like it.”
A relationship between the two companies is expected since PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is built on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and, higher up the ladder, both companies are involved with the Chinese company Tencent.
Still, it’s quite a different tune from the one PUBG Corp was singing a little over a year ago. Last May, the company filed a lawsuit against Epic Games that alleged Fortnite’s then-new battle royale mode infringes on PUBG Corp’s copyrights due to its similarity to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Slightly before the lawsuit was launched, the vice president of PUBG Corp parent company Bluehole accused Epic of “replicating the experience for which Battlegrounds is known” through the free-to-play Fortnite mode. However, that lawsuit was quietly withdrawn less than a month later.