The question of cloning usually leads to great agitation, and I’ve written about the technical issues of what is legal before.
I think I am in the minority for believing that weak copyright protections are preferable to strong ones, but I do believe that strong copyright protections would eventually lead to all game genres effectively being owned by large companies with many lawyers.
So, PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS: When Fortnite Battle Royale came out (the more successful game as of now), it was widely seen as copying PUBG’s battle royale format – except
a) this wasn’t invented by PUBG
b) a game format like battle royale is not the kind of thing you can copyright (it’s an idea), but you have copyright over the expression of that idea, so legal action has to happen on the grounds that the offending party made too many similar design decisions that were not necessary.
Now Ars Technica reports that PUBG corp is suing Chinese developer Netease. Their legal argument is illustrative of how such lawsuits can be made: the general game structure of PUBG cannot be legally defended, but a developer that makes too many similar choices in game design, level design, and visual design will be legally vulnerable:
The suit individually describes characteristics of the game as “a copyrightable audio-visual work, individually and/or in combination with other elements of Battlegrounds,” and it includes screenshots of the competing game to make a case of infringement. Remarkably, PUBG Corp lists what it believes are 25 copyrightable characteristics about the game…
PUBG Corp’s argument appears to hinge on that “in combination with other elements” label, as both targeted games include examples of each of the 25 elements by way of screenshot or gameplay description. As the lawsuit contends, “The use of cookware as a weapon or armor in a shooter game, the use of certain vehicles and landscapes and combinations thereof, the use of distinctive supply boxes, and the celebratory reference to chicken are elements of ornamental flair that are not functional but have acquired secondary meaning, as shown by their use by players in memes, parodies, skits and other contexts to refer to the Battlegrounds game and to its developer, i.e., PUBG.”
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