The folks behind the biggest game of 2017 say their game was copied - here's what's going on

When you've made made nearly half a billion dollars in six months, you can throw some weight around.

That helps explain why developer Bluehole, Inc., the South Korean game company behind the breakout hit video game "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" ("PUBG"), issued a bizarre press release on September 22 accusing another prominent game development company of copying their game.

"We are concerned that 'Fortnite' may be replicating the experience for which 'PUBG' is known," Chang Han Kim, Bluehole vice president and executive producer, said in a press release.

Kim's claiming that Epic Games' "Fortnite" is copying "PUBG" - a wild claim unto itself, made even wilder by the fact that Bluehole has an ongoing business relationship with Epic Games. The very technology powering "PUBG" is made by Epic Games, which puts the two companies in a very weird place. But Kim wasn't done:

"The 'PUBG' community has and continues to provide evidence of the many similarities as we contemplate further action," he wrote.

So, what in the world is going on? There's a lot to unpack.