No More Forgiveness, Krafton Sues Garena For Continuing To Imitate Its Game On Free Fire

Krafton surprisingly sued Garena for copyright infringement. (photo: doc. Krafton)

JAKARTA - Krafton surprisingly sued Garena for alleged copyright infringement on its Free Fire game. It is claimed, Garena has copied many aspects of the game owned by the developer behind PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

Krafton is also the creator of the PUBG Mobile game, the best-selling mobile game globally. In his lawsuit, Krafton accused Garena's game of copying many of his gameplay techniques, including openings, structures, combinations, weapon selection, armor, unique objects, locations, overall color scheme, materials, and textures.

The lawsuit also drags Apple, Google including its streaming service, YouTube which were found to have been a forum for broadcasting videos of infringing material. In response to this, a Garena spokesperson said that "Krafton's claims are baseless."

What Are Krafton's Claims against Garena?

According to the details of the complaint, Garena began selling games in Singapore that allegedly mimicked aspects of Krafton's gameplay, shortly after Battlegrounds launched in 2017.

Apple and Google started selling a mobile version of the game, which was originally called Free Fire: Battlegrounds and is now simply called Free Fire. The events were later resolved between the two companies, but Krafton never signed a licensing agreement with Garena.

Then, on September 28, 2021, Garena released a new title called Free Fire MAX, which is a separate mobile game distributed on Apple and Google app stores. The game is meant to offer the same user experience as Free Fire.

Krafton said, the new version also violates various aspects of Battlegrounds. The company notes that the breaking game has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in its global sales.

Meanwhile, Krafton called YouTube in a lawsuit for hosting Free Fire and Free Fire MAX gameplay videos. The video has received hundreds of millions of views.

Launching TechCrunch, Friday, January 14, Krafton reasoned to take this lawsuit to court because Apple and Google had not fulfilled their request to distribute the game on their app stores. YouTube will also not remove infringing videos.

The lawsuit was filed in US District Court for the Central District of California on January 10, 2022. To win, Krafton must prove to court that Garena has violated the law, not just by offering a similar battle royale-style game.

For information, PUBG Mobile earned US$2.7 billion in 2020, which grows to US$2.9 billion in 2021, according to Sensor Tower data. Garena Free Fire saw around 1.2 billion US dollars last year, in comparison.

No doubt seeing this number many imitate the game from Krafton. Seen, PUBG also previously settled a copyright claim with NetEase imitating the game, Krafton also dropped a similar lawsuit with Epic Games over Fortnite in 2018.