Earlier, we saw the announcement of Paladins: Battlegrounds, which offers a battle-royale take on the current hero shooter from Hi-Rez Studios. Naturally, it only took a short time before comparisons were being made between this revelation and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Hi-Rez Studios’ president Stew Chisam responded to these similarities recently, stating that the term “Battlegrounds” is a generic term that is unable to be trademarked. Chisam also stated that the naming of the title is completely unrelated to PUBG, though they had to get the all-clear from their attorneys before doing so.
He continued to reveal that the term “Battlegrounds,” which was chosen over Paladins: Battle Royale, is more of a tribute to MMOs. This won’t come as much of a surprise, given that the shooter is a team based title with the use of high-speed mounts, something that is widely used in the genre.
The term is only applied for the specific game mode, and is considered as an evolution of a game mode that had been previously scrapped, so comparisons to PUBG may well be misplaced in this particular instance. It’s easy to see why games are going to attempt to copy or emulate PUBG given its sheer popularity, but this case doesn’t appear to be related.
