Google and Apple face a 'PUBG problem' while playing Garena Free Fire

PUBG Mobile developer Krafton has started a big lawsuit. The company is suing two mobile games that it accuses of copying PUBG, and the company is also involving Google and Apple in the lawsuit for distributing these games in their respective app stores. The South Korean developer is also suing Google's YouTube for hosting videos and live streams featuring gameplay from the two games in question, as well as posts that "contain a full-length Chinese movie that is nothing more than an action dramatization." Battlegrounds live stream that openly infringes. "

The games that Krafton is looking for are the popular Garena Free Fire and Garena Free Fire Max games that have gained significant popularity in recent months. Both games are available for free with in-app purchases and offer an experience similar to PUBG: Mobile, where a set number of players fight in squads in an open-world arena. "Free Fire and Free Fire Max extensively copy numerous aspects of Battlegrounds, both individually and in combination, including Battlegrounds' copyrighted game's unique opening "air drop" feature, the game's structure and gameplay, the combination and selection of unique weapons, armour and items. objects, locations, and the overall choice of combinations of colours, materials, and textures," Krafton said.

Krafton alleges that Garena has made hundreds of millions of dollars from the sales of these apps and that Apple and Google have also made a substantial amount of revenue from their distribution of Free Fire and the most recent Free Fire Max.

Krafton, in his lawsuit, claims that on December 21, 2021, it took some measures that included asking Garena to "immediately stop the exploitation of the two games". Google stopped distributing the games, but both are still available on both app stores. It even asked YouTube to remove Garena Free Fire and Free Fire Max gameplay-related videos that include elements infringing Battlegrounds and the aforementioned feature film. Krafton has said that YouTube has not yet responded to his request.

Krafton also says that Garena sold a game in Singapore in 2017 that "copied" PUBG: Battlegrounds. Now, although the claims in this regard have been resolved, no license agreement has been established, according to the lawsuit.

As of October 2021, Garena Free Fire was the world's most downloaded mobile game on the Google Play Store, according to a Sensor Tower report from October 2021. It was the 10th most popular game on the Apple App Store during the same time. Furthermore, a report in The Verge cites numbers from Senor Tower showing that Free Fire earned $1.1 billion (approximately Rs 8,149 crore) in player spending in 2021. This was a 48 percent jump from game numbers in 2020.

The report also cited data from Appfigures that said that while PUBG Mobile was still ahead in terms of revenue, Garena Free Fire is catching up. The game earned $414 million in 2021, while PUBG Mobile earned $639 million, including India and China-specific versions of the game.