Cloning is the process of creating a video game that is significantly motivated or inspired by an existing popular video game or series. Developers have been cloning popular video games since the 1980s, including Tetris, Doom, Minecraft, Bejeweled and Flappy Bird. Often, game developers create clones in an attempt to confuse users and cash in on a game’s popularity.
So if video game cloning isn’t unusual in the gaming industry, why are we talking about it? Since its release earlier this year, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or PUBG, has become the most popular game on Steam, peaking at 1,523,179 concurrent players online. The premise of PUBG is simple: 100 players parachute out of an airplane onto an island where they must scavenge weapons, armor and other items from its abandoned towns and military bases. During the course of the match, the size of the battlefield shrinks, encouraging players to confront one another. The last player or team standing wins the match.
The recently released Fortnite: Battle Royale is essentially a cartoonish take on PUBG premise and includes all of the same gameplay elements. The developer of Fortnite does not deny the similarity to PUBG. In fact, the trailer for Fortnite begins by stating that the game was inspired by PUBG and the developer of Fortnite even directly references PUBG in a blog post explaining his motivations in developing the Battle Royale game.
In response, PUBG developers stated in a press release last week, “We have also noticed that Epic Games references PUBG in the promotion of Fortnite to their community and in communications with the press […]” This was never discussed with us, and we don’t feel that it’s right […] The PUBG community has and continues to provide evidence of the many similarities as we contemplate further...
