Did PUBG Mobile Steal Weapon Skins From CS:GO?

PUBG Mobile devs recently released a skin for the M16A4 named Psycho Savage, which looks almost like an exact copy of Neon Revolution, an AK47 skin in CS:GO. There is only one minor difference - the PUBG version has a small white stripe on top.

This has riled the CS:GO community up quite a bit, with people digging out even more cases of skin copying: PUBG's Field Commander AWM being a direct copy of AWP Phobos in CS:GO or PUBG's QBZ95 Phantom is like 80% of CS:GO's Neo-Noir skin.

Is PUBG Mobile copying CS:GO's assets?

While the designs are strikingly similar, people noted that it might just be a coincidence, as designers might cycle back into the same shades of color every now and then. However, CS:GO fans disagreed - according to them, it is illegal to just rip off someone else's work then profit off it.

Overall, this issue is in the grey area, as creative works like this are ripped off very often by a lot of titles out there - especially mobile titles with fewer resources available for designing skins. This issue has been plagued PUBG Mobile's skin designs recently, with some skins allegedly stolen from Rules of Survival, another battle royale game. The Ashes skin for the AKM is accused of being stolen works from a GTA mod as well.

Is copying skins from CS:GO or other games illegal?

They often are - weapon skins in games are usually copyrighted original art, and when something is copyrighted, other people can't reproduce and sell that artwork without agreements from copyrights owner. And even with the added stripes, other companies can still sue PUBG Mobile for violation of copyright. It is likely that nothing would come out of this, as they would usually settle matters off the court to save themselves the legal fee - PUBG Mobile might alter the skin until it is derived far enough from the original.

Interested in more information about PUBG Mobile? Please check out this post to find out how to use symbols in PUBG names.