April 24, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Blizzard China and its Chinese partner NetEase have filed a lawsuit against 4399 Network, a Chinese game maker, for infringing its intellectual property rights and violating Chinese competition laws with knock-off games.

Blizzard China and NetEase have also gotten two 4399 Network’s games, including “Heroes of Warfare,” removed from Apple’s App Store for ripping off its popular shooting game “Overwatch.”

Bluehole Studio, a Korean game developer known for its hit “PlayUnknown’s Battlegrounds,” has also fallen prey to Chinese rip-offs, but is reluctant to take legal action.

Chinese games such as “Law of The Jungle” and “The Fittest” share many similarities with “Battlegrounds,” but Bluehole is undecided on whether to sue.

“We’re considering a number of measures but nothing has been decided yet,” a Bluehole official said, adding that the firm is taking time because the rip-offs don’t appear to be directly hurting the sales of “Battlegrounds.”

“Battlegrounds” is not published in China, but Chinese players on the global game publishing platform Steam account for more than 20 percent of the total 13 million users.

Industry watchers say that it might be difficult for Bluehole to take action in China as the company is considering launching the game there and probably would not want to begin with a legal battle.

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)