Stefan Mileschin

Dragged into court

The maker of the popular game “PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" has launched a US lawsuit claiming that a Singapore-based company made rip-off versions of its game, and Apple and Google have refused to stop selling them.

A Los Angeles federal court complaint said that Garena Online's "Free Fire" games copy several copyrighted aspects of PUBG: Battlegrounds, including its game structure and in-game items, equipment, and locations.

Released in 2017, Battlegrounds was one of the first and most successful "battle royale" games, a popular genre that now includes "Fortnite" and "Call of Duty: Warzone." Korea-based Krafton's complaint said Battlegrounds has sold more than 75 million copies.

The complaint said Garena, owned by Singapore-based Sea Ltd, began selling Free Fire through Apple and Google's app stores in 2017, and started selling another infringing game called "Free Fire MAX" last year.

According to Krafton, Apple and Google have distributed hundreds of millions of copies of the Free Fire games.

The complaint says Garena generated more than $100 million in revenue from Free Fire sales in the US in 2021. Krafton named Google's YouTube as a defendant for allegedly hosting videos of Free Fire gameplay and a Chinese film that Krafton says is a live-action dramatisation of its game.

https://fudzilla.com/news/54201-appl...rated-software