On Monday, PUBG developer Krafton filed a major lawsuit. In addition to accusing the two mobile game makers of plagiarizing their own popular chicken-dinner games, Krafton also wants the Apple/Google app store as a distribution platform to be jointly and severally liable.
What’s more outrageous is that Krafton even accused Google of playing introductory videos of the two games on YouTube, as well as a live-action movie that was blatantly infringing. Specifically, Krafton wants legal action against Garena’s two mobile games, Free Fire and Free Fire Max.
As a free-to-play mobile game, Fire Fire/Max offers the option of in-app purchases, and both display the same name on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The reason for the complaint given by the plaintiff is that the two mobile games are unscrupulous in the selection and combination of opening (airdrop), structure, gameplay, weapons, armor, special items, as well as details such as location, color scheme, material, texture, etc. Plagiarized from PUBG.
Garena is expected to earn hundreds of millions of dollars through in-app purchases, with Apple and Google also taking a sizable cut. On December 21, Krafton demanded that Garena stop the infringement immediately, but was ruthlessly rejected.
At the same time, Apple and Google were asked to stop distributing the game and to have YouTube takedown gameplay videos, unfortunately so far it’s business as usual. As for the film that was also involved in the lawsuit, it was actually “Biubiubiu” produced by Youku. It started a domestic exclusive broadcast on the entire network on August 6, but YouTube also provides on-demand on its exclusive channel.
As an online movie, it tells the story of a down-and-out father trying to form a team to participate in a “chicken-dinner” competition with a prize of 5 million, in order to buy a school district house and fight for custody of his son. In August last year, it was reported that Krafton was considering an infringement lawsuit over the film, despite the director claiming that it did not copy PUBG.
Finally, Krafton pointed out that Garena launched a “remake” of PUBG: Battleground in Singapore in 2017, but the two parties did not reach a license.