Gaming

Krafton suing Apple, Google, and Garena over alleged copyright infringement in Free Fire

Yashika Gupta

Jan 06,2024
2 min read
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Krafton, the parent company of the inventor and publisher of PUBG, is suing Apple, Google, and Garena, professing brand violation by the mobile battle royale title Free Fire, according to a Reuters report.

The South Korean company alleges the mobile game has copied several aspects of PUBG Battlefields, which includes “game structure, in-game particulars, outfit, and locales.” While Garena has been sued for making the title, Google and Apple have been included for distributing Free Fire on its operation stores.

According to the report, Krafton had preliminarily asked Garena, Apple, and Google to stop distributing the game in December. With no action being taken, the company has moved to a California quarter court to block the game and recover “damages,” which it says includes Garena’s gains from the game’s deals.

Krafton also mentions Free Fire MAX in its action. This game, which was released last time, is an upgraded interpretation of the original title with better plates to attract players with advanced device specifications.

A prophet for Sea, the parent company of Garena, told Fleck Esports that “Krafton’s claims are foundationless.”

PUBG Battlefields was released in 2016 and snappily came one of the most popular battles royale titles at the time. The kidney-defining game was latterly brought to Android and iOS bias in 2018 through cooperative trouble between Krafton and Tencent. Tencent owns shares of Krafton, as well as Garena’s parent company Sea group, although it reduced its effects in the company before this month.

While PUBG Mobile snappily come to a leading mobile game title since its release four times agone, it has faced competition from Garena’s Free Fire. Krafton’s action comes soon after the company released a new mobile game, PUBG New State, which came out in November.

This isn’t the first time Krafton has sued companies for allegedly copying from its PUBG IP. In 2018, the company had filed an action against Epic Games for “numerous parallels” between PUBG and Fortnite. It had also moved against NetEase in the same time over two of its mobile games, Rules of Survival and Shanks Out, for the same reasons. All three games are presently available for download.