The developer of indie game Hypnospace Outlaw has accused Tencent of using its IP to create PUBG Mobile's newest skin.
There is a very fine line between lifting from someone else's work and paying homage to it in your own and downright copying it for your own personal gain. Where exactly that line falls is ultimately down to the creator of the work. To decide whether their work is being honored elsewhere or if it has been copied without consent.
For Hypnospace Outlaw developer Jay Tholen, PUBG Mobile's new skin very much falls into the copying without consent category. PUBG Mobile's new Hypnospace Diva set was revealed on Twitter this morning and is available to buy in-game from now through August 12, 2021. Not only does the set appear to borrow from Hypnospace Outlaw's name, but the skin itself looks very much like it was inspired by the game's aesthetic.
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“It sucks that PUBG have stolen Hypnospace's name to sell a tacky costume. the color choices seem to pull from our key art as well,” Tholen tweeted, quote tweeting the announcement of the skin made via PUBG Mobile's Twitter. However, it isn't Hypnospace Outlaw's IP allegedly being used without consent that bothers Tholen most. It's the game his own work will now be associated with.
“It irks me that someone who already knows about Hypnospace could run across this and assume we made a deal that resulted in something so aesthetically and morally vile,” Tholen went on to say. He even admitted that something like this in another game wouldn't bother him so much. Last but not least, Tholen admits going up against a giant the size of Tencent probably isn't going to result in much, but he feels compelled to at least try.
PUBG Mobile isn't the first BR game to be accused of lifting ideas from elsewhere and repurposing them inside their own virtual world. Epic was hit with a string of lawsuits over certain emotes popping up in Fortnite. Most notably, Fresh Prince actor Alfonso Ribeiro accusing the studio of turning the Carlton Dance into an emote without his permission. That lawsuit ultimately came to nothing.
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