Bethesda sues Warner Bros. and Westworld mobile game for copying Fallout Shelter

Warner Bros. just published their Westworld mobile game last week, but now it has gotten into a serious trouble. Bethesda Softworks has recently filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. for ‘blatant rip-off’ of Fallout Shelter, as both the game has the highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and gameplay elements.

First published on mobile in 2015, Fallout Shelter is a simulation video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios with assistance by Behaviour Interactive. Westworld mobile game is developed by Behaviour Interactive too, and this is where the problem came from:

Behaviour’s breach of its contract with Bethesda is evidenced by the gameplay of Westworld, which uses the same copyrighted computer code created for Bethesda’s FALLOUTSHELTER game. Behaviour’s use of the computer code owned by Bethesda to develop Westworld even included the very same ‘bugs’ or defects present in the FALLOUT SHELTER code. 

Both the game apparently uses the same computer code, where even the similar bugs in the early version of Fallout Shelter occurred in Westworld mobile game (the view is rendered out-of-focus when a player starts up the demonstration version of the Westworld game). Some example of both games’ similar parts are showed in the lawsuit as well:

Also, both Warner Bros. and Behaviour are sued ‘for their willful and intentional infringement of Bethesda’s copyrights, misappropriation of Bethesda’s trade secrets, and deceptive business practices and unfair competition through their development, marketing, and promotion of the Westworld mobile game’.

Bethesda is claiming compensation for their damage on this matter, you can view the full lawsuit here. Warner Bros. and Behaviour Interactive are yet to comment about the lawsuit, we will get back to you once there is an update!

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