Epic Games has rubbed a little salt into the salty tears of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds developer Bluehole, announcing that Fortnite: Battle Royale attracted over one million players at launch yesterday. The Korean company won’t be too concerned, of course – there were almost 1.5 million people playing its smash success today alone – but it did very publicly criticise the Unreal Engine maker for copying its game last week.
Personally, we think that Epic Games has been incredibly smart with all this. PUBG has reached critical mass, and there are a lot of people who just want to experience a battle royale-esque mode to see what it’s all about. The fact that PUBG is not yet available on consoles – and will be tied to the Xbox One for the foreseeable future – has left an open goal for Fortnite: Battle Royale. It helps that the mode is pretty decent, too.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 32
Needs a lot of work still. It's free but laughable in comparison to PUBG. The mechanics are floaty, the hit boxes are terrible, guns lack that real "oomph" when shooting, and a lack of vehicles makes the game a true run simulator towards the end.
Before replies roll in that i'm biased, i spent $60 on Fortnite, and i like the PVE a lot. I have over 100 hours into it. The gameplay in PVE definitely does not translate well to PVP. It's too loose with it's mechanics.
Also, what's up with people's lack of actually reading? Bluehole was worried more about Epic using their game as actual promotional material than their copying of a genre. It's been made publicly clear by the creator that he takes no credit for creating BR. Sounds to me like the salty tears are coming from the Sony crowd because it's an Xbox exclusive.
I'm more amazed that Epic didn't mess up the launch
I really doubt it'll dethrone PUBG.
Shooters in general and specifically PvP aren't really my thing, but I wanted to try it out...I've seen a few PUBG streams and it looks like fun. I played 3 matches and actually had a really good time - I was middle of the pack for two of them and placed 5th in one...but I had zero kills...I probably softened a few players up for the next player...does that count as an assist? I'll take it
But honestly I would recommend to anyone who's on the fence. I'm horrible and I had fun with it. Definitely something to jump into between marathon sessions...currently, Shadow Tactics.
@RedMageLanakyn Hm, I disagree. Regardless of what the exec says, the statement they put out was definitely salty, no matter how they want to frame it.
It's all stupid anyway, they have the biggest game around ATM, who cares if a pretender drops by?
@get2sammyb I'm certainly not going to defend Bluehole, as they've made some pretty bad moves in regards to how they've treated players in general. Bluehole is renting the UE4 engine directly from Epic, and most of the assets are directly taken from the UE store, some even having a "as seen in PUBG!" label on them. Epic used PUBG videos and images in promotional material for Fortnite BR without their permission, which is a strange move considering they've had a close working relationship for the past year, don't you think?
Imagine if you rented an engine from say, Crytek, had a great working relationship, make a killer game, and then one day, out of the blue, Crytek has this strangely familiar game mode they've added to their latest game, and they're using your game as a promotion for it. You telling me that you wouldn't in the least bit get upset about that? Imitation is one thing; flat out using a business partner's work to try and further your own is pretty despicable.
@RedMageLanakyn All I was aware of was that they said they were big fans of PUBG and wanted to make a mode like it.
I didn't know they were cutting the game into promotional videos. That certainly does seem a bit much, agreed.
Great start for Fortnite. Definitely a great alternative to PUBG.
@RedMageLanakyn
If it's a "rented" engine, we don't know what the Terms and Conditions of the Licensing Agreement are. There could be allowances for this very sort of thing.
There are plenty of T&Cs where you must consent to the use of your information for promotional purposes. Smaller startups might face this same requirement to get a better deal for the engine.
If Bluehole negotiated bad T&Cs, that's on them.
I feel that's what happens when a genre explodes and people wanna try it. Right now PUBG is only on PC yet us console peasants want a slice of the battle royal pie
@lacerz I thought about that myself, but then again, if that's the case, why didn't Epic immediately counter Bluehole's claims by releasing the terms of their contract with them? If they had such a contract, surely Epic would want to get ahead of this before it goes to court? At this point, all I know of the contract is that Epic receives a portion of their profits per sale, so really, they're making tons of money off of PUBG.
@RedMageLanakyn
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/eula
Last paragraph of Article 12:
12. Proprietary Notices and Attribution
Epic may use your trademarks, service marks, trade names, and logos used with any Product, as well as publicly released screen shots and video content from the Product, in connection with Epic’s marketing, advertisement, and promotion of the Unreal® Engine in any and all media without restriction.
@lacerz Fair enough. Raises two questions though; why did Bluehole even bring it up, and why hasn't Epic released their own statement with that exact paragraph you linked? Just weird, weird moves by both parties.
I've been playing BR and I like it a lot. After watching gameplay of PUBG I really wanted to try it but I don't have a PC or Xbox so this game scratches that itch. Sure you're doing a lot of running and hiding but I like the survival aspect when all other shooters are about the amount of kills. Definitely a different element
@RedMageLanakyn
My thoughts:
1) Bluehole was upset at the competition from their engine source;
2) Epic doesn't want to make any public statement with Bluehole threatening "further action" that could be used in court or arbitration, depending on the dispute resolution article of the T&Cs.
Whatever the case, Epic feels confident enough to reference PUBG in marketing Fortnite, given PUGB's use of Unreal.
My layman's opinion is that so long as Epic is advertising that Fortnite is using the Unreal Engine used by PUBG, they're in the clear.
"Fortnite. Powered by Unreal Engine, as used by PlayerUnknown's Battle Ground."
Quite enjoying it,only played a few matches,in one of them I actually did better by standing still(I was changing our baby at the time) rather than running around!..I didn't really have much interest in fortnite when it came out but playing the PvP mode has definitely changed that and I'll be buying fortnite,maybe that's why the devs put the PvP mode out for free hoping to increase interest in the main game
This happened years ago with the original DayZ, that titled spawned hundreds of unfinished post-apoc survival clones on Steam, & it wasnt even its own game, it was an Arma 2 mod. Then its creator tried to release a standalone version & charge for it, & its a buggy mess. Where theres a winning formula theres a rip off to be had.
Love it!
I dont work in the industry so its good for us. Haha player unknown ya cry baby.
Switch it to ps4 or be prepared for a short korea. Sorry i mean career.
Shell?
I downloaded this yesterday on XB1 and I haven't been off it since! It's a rush when you jump off the "battle bus" and trying to quickly find a weapon to defend yourself. I usually grab a weapon, get some building materials and barricade myself in a hiding space somewhere in the middle of the map as the "storm" closes in, like a coward 😂
Experiencing this BR mode for the first time is making me excited to play PUBG.
@themcnoisy @Cowboysfan-22 @teknium Yea, I really love it too. Still, right now it feels very barebones still. And I didn't really find the controls very intuitive in this mode. What are your opinions?
By the way, I'd love to play this in squads sometime!
I've played a few more rounds...can't say I'm any better, but I did get my first couple of kills. The first was someone camping in a bathroom - luckily I had a shotgun. The second was 'Epic'...I landed in an alley between two buildings fenced in at both ends. What I didn't realize was that someone followed me down, so I started swinging my pick-axe. They picked up a sniper rifle, but in the close confines of the alley they ony got one shot off which missed. Pick-axe 1, Sniper Rifle 0.
@themcnoisy It's the execs at Bluehole causing problems, not the guy the game is named after. Playerunknown has made it pretty clear he has no issues with BR games, and takes no credit for creating a new gaming genre.
Played PUBG and enjoyed it for what it is. Fortnite is what PUBG would have been like if Disney had created it.
What makes me laugh is because of PUBG comments that has made people even more aware of Fortnite Battle Royale therefore driving more people to it.
Its a game anyone can pick up and within a few minutes understand all the mechanics.
PUBG will do very well on consoles when ever it comes. Its a more polished experience but this is a good stop gap. Bcause its seems pretty apparent a lot of the other games of this genre are not making it to PS4.
@FaultyDroid
This is not s rippoff of PUBG. There are enough differences for it not to be called that.
I've also heard that Shuya Nanahara and Katniss Everdeen are pretty angry about PUBG, Fortnite and GTA V.
@Kidfried
Yea I agree about the controls. It's a little rough. But I imagine it'll get better with a patch or two. I'm down to play squads sometime! I was playing squads with a friend yesterday and we were getting whooped because 2 people just can't take on 4
Why does no one ever say that battlegrounds was a copy of h1z1 or day Z King of the hill, or if you want to be more petty even the film battle Royal
I really enjoyed the one match I got into, but I spent about half an hour failing to connect with a second match and getting various error messages. No thanks.
Good for Epic, maybe now it might make Bluehole stop moaning and start developing a PS4 version of PUBG instead of taking Microsoft's easy money.
@RedMageLanakyn
Except in today's Bloomberg article BH is already in talks with Sony on PUBG for PS4. Do you feel stupid yet about your assumptions? The fact you actually thought it was an Xbox exclusive is laughable.
@megamanx3 Wow, calm down tryhard. I wasn't making any assumptions, MS said it themselves that PUBG was an xbox exclusive, they didn't say timed or otherwise. So no, i don't feel stupid, just a bit irritated at your comment.
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