Microsoft pulls PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds ad which ripped off fan
"This is being investigated."
Microsoft has pulled a PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds advert after a fan complained the company had copied their art.
Reddit user macsterr noticed similiarities between Microsoft's new advert and the concept they had created and posted online two months earlier.
Macsterr's image shows a PUBG character wading through a field of long grass, contained within the top of an Xbox One S, with a bright cloudy background.
Microsoft's image image shows a PUBG character wading through a field of long grass, contained within the top of an Xbox One X, with a bright cloudy background.
"Remember my Xbox One ad concept? Microsoft just copied it!" macsterr wrote. "I'm not saying I own any copyright but the original post has 63k views so I assume they saw it and I got no credits [sic]."
Microsoft - via Xbox mouthpiece Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb - has now responded, and said the official advert had now been pulled.
"Hey guys, I wanted to let you know that this is being investigated," Hryb posted in response. "In the meantime, our official channels have pulled down the asset in question. I'll follow up with the OP /u/macsterr/ once I get more details."
PUBG launched for Xbox One on 12th December to strong sales but plenty of criticism surrounding its performance. Digital Foundry's initial analysis found both regular and Xbox One X versions of the game ran "badly". A 4.7GB patch arrived a week after launch to take a "first pass" at improving performance and visuals.