Microsoft pulls PUBG ad after plagiarism accusation

Posted on January 3, 2018

Microsoft have removed an ad for Xbox One’s PlayerUnknown’s BattlegroundsĀ after receiving accusations of plagiarism by a fan. Reddit user and artist ‘u/macsterr’ noticed similarities between Xbox’s latest advert for the game and his own artwork for the Xbox version of PUBG, which had been posted online several months earlier. Check out both images below.

PUBG reddit user's art

u/macsterr’s original artwork

Microsoft's PUBG ad

Microsoft’s advertisement

Pretty similar, right?
Remember my Xbox One ad concept? Microsoft just copied it!” /u/macsterr wrote in a post. “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].

As of writing, Xbox’s own ‘Major Nelson’ has responded to the accusation by stating the asset has been removed, and that the matter is being investigated.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds launched on December 12th on Xbox One and, while being riddled with bugs and glitches, is one of the most popular Xbox One titles to release in 2017. We called it “shabby but fun mayhem”, and you can check out Luke’s thoughts here.