Fortnite: Battle Royale is not shutting down contrary to rumors stating otherwise. The tweet that spurred the panic is, in fact, fake.
The Tweet That Started It All
"Due to the law suit against PubG on copyright infringement. We are sorry to inform you that Fortnite Battle Royale Will be coming to an end May 24, 2018. Save the world will still be in development and we will roll out ASAP. Thank you all for the support," the fake tweet from Epic Games reads.
Many were quick to believe the fake tweet and consequently panicked that one of their favorite games is ending in less than a year. However, there are others who were also skeptical.
The statement is suspicious in itself because of grammatical errors. The term "law suit" should have been one word and it's unclear why a lawsuit against PUBG would have affected Fortnite. The last phrase is also ambiguous as it's not known what it's actually trying to say.
A simple visit to Fortnite's official Twitter account would also quickly dispel the rumor as the tweet in question is nowhere to be found.
Moreover, the fake tweet was dated April 10 but just two days after, the account talked about dropping an update, hinting that there are currently no plans to end the game. Instead, Epic Games has been talking about Fortnite features and updates.
PUBG Challenging Another Studio Is True
There were real-life incidents, though, that might have provided a bit of credibility to the fake status. Fotrnite: Battle Royale had encountered a server issue, which temporarily took it offline. It coincided with the fake tweet, adding fuel to the alarm.
Despite that the supposed tweet was confusing, it also probably tried saying that PUBG took action against Fortnite. PUBG Corp. did file a copyright infringement lawsuit but against the Chinese video game publisher NetEase.
NetEase has been making games to the style of battle royale including Rules of Survival and Knives Out. The PUBG creator cited memes using "chicken dinner," a popular line from the game and frying pans as armor as evidence of infringement.
"PUBG has suffered irreparable harm as a result of Defendants' infringing activities and will continue to suffer irreparable harm in the future unless Defendants are enjoined from their infringing conduct," the filed lawsuit reads.
Fortnite was nowhere mentioned in the lawsuit. Even so, PUBG Corp. will have a hard time challenging Epic Games for simply making a battle royale game since the concept did not originate from PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in the first place.
We’ll be releasing the v3.5.1 update tomorrow at 4am ET (08:00 GMT). This will address multiple bug fixes and require no downtime. More info: https://t.co/4gZNvyQHhQ — Fortnite (@FortniteGame) April 13, 2018
