Tag: Battle Royale

Fortnite Summer Tournament begins!

Starting this weekend, Epic will be hosting their Fortnite Summer Skirmishes. The series is 8-weeks long with the reward being $8 million! This is the first in-game tournament with prize money on the line for Epic. The prize is $250,000 for Duos (Two people on the same team in a Battle Royale). Epic chose specific players and Community Creators who are actually competitively good. Invitations have already been sent so if you’re expecting to receive one, sorry.

Each tournament will be a different format which will keep tournament interesting. There will also be different qualifying factors for each tournament so players will change accordingly.

Earlier this year, Epic announced that they will be starting their own competitive venue with the pot being $100 million. With Fortnite becoming the top viewed game on Twitch, their self-hosted tournaments will grab them a bigger audience. It will be more professional but it may lead to smaller tournaments disappearing as more players will compete for a higher prize and properly run.

Sources:

Fortnite Summer Skirmishes

Polygon

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PUBG drops Copyright Lawsuit against Fortnite

It’s a common trend for big tech companies to sue others for copyright infringement. For examples, Apple vs Samsung for smartphone designs or Gamevice suing Nintendo for the Switch’s design. Every company wants to own the technology and make a lot of money. Recently, for the gaming industry, the biggest copyright battle was PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) versus Fortnite which ended today with a draw.

PUBG Corp. sued Epic for copying their Battle Royal- style gameplay. While the concept of Battle Royal isn’t new in media, PUBG and Fortnite have greatly popularized the game mode. The lawsuit started in January in Korea.

Why did PUBG Corp drop the Lawsuit?

While PUBG Corp. hasn’t stated why they dropped the lawsuit, there are speculations it was dropped due to Tencent. Both are part-owned by social media and gaming giant. It would a conflict of interest for Tencent to have the games they invested in sue each other. Epic created the Unreal Engine which is used to make PUBG so that may have also caused complications in the lawsuit.

Regardless, it’s ridiculous for PUBG Corp to sue Epic for mimicking the battle royal gameplay style. The game plays differently but just has similar genres. If PUBG had won the lawsuit, imagine the rest of the gaming companies to sue one another that used similar gameplay.

Bloomberg – PUBG Corp drops lawsuit

History of Apple vs Samsung

CNBC – Nintendo sued over Switch Design

Epic Games and Fortnite cheaters Lawsuit finished

Epic Games, creators of Fortnite: Battle Royal, settles their lawsuit with one of its cheater: Charles Vraspir. If you’re curious on reading more about the allegation, you can read my previous article here. The lawsuit was from Epic Games regarding Charles Vraspir‘s usage of using aimbots and using cheats the game to deliberating targeting Twitch streamers in the game. He was also banned numerous times before the lawsuit. Vraspir was agreed to delete all software related to Addicted Cheats from his computer. He is forbidden from cheating on Fortnite and any Epic Games in the future. If he were to violate the policy, he would be charge a minimum of $5,000. The cheats affected the game code which was against the company’s policy: Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Link to the injunction from Torrent Freak here.

In regards to the 14-year-old, Caleb “Sky Orbit” Rogers, his case is still being discussed. He was also caught using the same cheating software in the game but also creating tutorial guides on how to utilize cheats in Fortnite: Battle Royale. Epic issued a DMCA takedown on the video which Rogers contested. This led to legal action by Epic. However, they were unaware that Rogers was 14. Rogers’ mother contested the lawsuit based on his age that Rogers was not affected the sales of the game because it is free and the EULA was not binding because of his age. As of December 7, the lawsuit is still active against Rogers and the protection of anonymity is void because his mother put his name on her letter.

What do you think of Gaming companies taking legal action against cheaters? Do you feel that it crosses the line or that they have the legal right? Does making the game free affect your opinion on potential lawsuits?

Opinion:

I personally think suing the players is quite extreme. While I agree cheaters should be punished, I think permanently banning them or their IP address similar to Blizzard is more effective.

Sources:

Rolling Stones

Polygon