PUBG Settles Lawsuit Against Knives Out And Rules Of Survival

PUBG Corporation sued a bunch of other publishers last year, including Epic Games (over Fortnite) and fellow Chinese publisher NetEase (over Knives Out and Rules Of Survival). The former case was dropped in the same year, but the latter was only recently resolved.

Last year, PUBG Corp fired the first shot as it filed a suit accusing NetEase of creating clones of PUBG Mobile, referring to Knives Out and Rules of Survival. They argued that these games exhibited many similarities in terms of gameplay, audio, and even visuals.

In response, NetEase filed a counter lawsuit, alleging that PUBG Corp is trying to monopolize the battle royale genre and attempting to copyright gameplay elements that are the norm, like health bars, online lobbies, and the phrase “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner”.

According to a report by the McArthur Law Firm (via GamesIndustry.biz), both PUBG Corp and NetEase have filed a settlement for the lawsuit and counter lawsuit. However, details were not revealed to the public and it’s not clear whether it will involve changes to any of the three games involved.

The most likely verdict is that the settlement involved monetary payment of some kind, and players probably don’t have to expect their fave game to suddenly change too much in the near future. It’s also not clear who actually ‘won’ the case, so fingers crossed.