The massive popularity of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds led to development of similar titles, clones rather, across platforms. In the wake of the recent outburst in the number of battle royale games, Brendan Greene, the creator of PUBG, stepped up to the crticise the lack of copyright protection in the games industry.
The developer urged the industry to resort to stronger measures against copyright infringement. Speaking to BBC Radio 1’s Gaming Show (via Newsbeat/gamesindustry.biz), Greene emphasized on the fact the he wants the battle royale genre to grow, but more needs to be done to prevent rip offs.
“I want other developers to put their own spin on the genre… not just lift things from our game,”Greene said. “For that to happen you need new and interesting spins on the game mode. If it’s just copycats down the line, then the genre doesn’t grow and people get bored.”
“There’s no intellectual property protection in games. In movies and music there is IP protection and you can really look after your work. In gaming that doesn’t exist yet, and it’s something that should be looked into”, Greene further added.
“Some amazing games pass under the radar. Then someone else takes the idea, has a marketing budget, and suddenly has a popular game because they ripped off someone else’s idea. I think it’s something the industry needs to look into. You’re protecting the work of artists basically. Games are art for a large part, and so I think it’s important they’re protected.”
The industry has witnessed many PUBG ripoffs recently, with Fortnite, an equally popular title, accused of the same too, and China witnessing even more of these ripoffs. Greene’s chat with Radio 1’s Gaming Show will be featured on the BBC iPlayer in January.