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Bethesda sues Warner Bros for ripping off Fallout Shelter with Westworld mobile game - taken down!

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lmaooooo http://www.tmz.com/2018/06/21/warner-bros-sued-company-claims-westworld-game-total-rip-off/

WARNER BROS. SUED
YOUR 'WESTWORLD' GAME'S A RIP-OFF!!!

Warner Bros. Sued by Company Claiming 'Westworld' App Game is a Rip-Off
BREAKING NEWS

0621-warner-westworld-getty-3.jpg


Warner Bros. got in bed with a tech company that jacked codes in order to fast-track and produce its "Westworld" mobile app ... so claims another company in a new lawsuit.

The gaming company, Bethesda Softworks, is suing the media giant and Behaviour Interactive and, in the suit, says Behaviour stole its designs, artwork and codes ... and used them in the "Westworld" game.

In docs, obtained by TMZ, Bethesda says it hired Behaviour first, in 2014, to work on its popular mobile app game, "Fallout Shelter." Later, after "Westworld" premiered in 2016 ... Behaviour went on to create the "Westworld" game for Warner Bros.

Bethesda's issue, according to the suit, is that Behaviour used its "Fallout Shelter" coding for the "Westworld" game. And, Bethesda believes there's a smoking gun -- the same bugs that appeared in an earlier version of 'Fallout' also showed up in the "Westworld" game.

Bethesda is suing to get the game shut down and to get a slice of the profits. We've reached out to Warner Bros. and Behaviour ... so far, no word back.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/06...r-bros-for-blatant-rip-off-of-fallout-shelter

BETHESDA SUING WARNER BROS. FOR 'BLATANT RIP-OFF' OF FALLOUT SHELTER

Bethesda is suing Westworld game developer Behaviour Interactive and publisher Warner Bros, claiming Behaviour stole its designs, artwork, and coding, and used them in the mobile app.

Bethesda accuses Behaviour of stealing assets from Fallout Shelter - which Behaviour helped to develop - and using them in the Westworld game. According to the suit filed, Bethesda is suing Behaviour for breach of contract, while Warner Bros. is being sued for inducement to breach of contract.

In addition, both parties are being 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."

In the suit, Bethesda argues it hired Behaviour to develop Fallout Shelter, and its assets, "solely for use by Bethesda." However Warner Bros, after seeing "Bethesda's significant success" with Fallout Shelter "engaged and collaborated with Behaviour to develop a mobile app for its own science-fiction property, Westworld."

The main crux of Bethesda's argument is that the two games have a "substantially similar gameplay experience". The company even goes as far as to say the Westworld game is a "blatant rip-off" of Fallout Shelter, with similar game design, art style, animations, and features.

Bethesda claims bugs appeared in the Westworld mobile game which were evident in the early development of Fallout Shelter. This bug appears when a player starts up a demonstration version of Westworld, and renders the view out-of-focus.

Other similarities noted as evidence in the suit include numerous reports from journalists who claim the games play similarly, the multi-room underground vault environment, character behaviour, shading, room placement, and more - all complete with side-by-side images.

One example given is that "the Westworld mobile game copies FALLOUT SHELTER’s bar room complete with characters sitting at tables drinking oversized mugs of beer" (see below).

So why is Bethesda suing both parties instead of just Behaviour? According to the suit, "Warner Bros. has a direct financial interest in Behaviour’s infringing activities through the resulting reduced costs and expedited development of the Westworld mobile game." Bethesda is requesting compensation for this to recover damages.

We have contacted Bethesda for comment.
 
Last edited:

Shackleton

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Gotta keep them lawyers busy doing something!

https://www.polygon.com/2018/6/22/1...er-bros-westworld-mobile-game-fallout-shelter

Polygon said:
Bethesda Softworks is suing Warner Bros. and Fallout Shelter co-developer Behaviour Interactive over the recently released Westworld, alleging that the mobile game based on HBO’s TV series is a “blatant rip-off” of Fallout Shelter.

In a suit filed in a Maryland U.S. District Court, Bethesda alleges that Westworld — developed by Behaviour and released this week for Android and iOS — “has the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and other gameplay elements” as Fallout Shelter.

Fallout Shelter was originally released in 2015 for mobile devices. The game was later ported to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.

Bethesda said in its suit that Behaviour uses “the same copyrighted computer code created for Fallout Shelter in Westworld,” alleging that a bug evident in an early version of Fallout Shelter (which was later fixed) also appears in Westworld. Bethesda alleges the companies “copied Fallout Shelter’s features and then made cosmetic modifications for Westworld’s ‘western’ theme.”

The suit also alleges that “Behaviour breached its contract with Bethesda and utilized its restricted access to Bethesda’s intellectual property, including Bethesda’s copyrighted code, trade secrets, and other rights, to compress its development timeline, reduce costs, and quickly bring the Westworld mobile game to market, and offer players the widely popular gameplay experience found in Fallout Shelter.”

The suit points out similar gameplay features, including “cartoonish 2D characters in a 3D environment” and the underground multi-room facilities that players explore and build, in both Fallout Shelter and Westworld.

Bethesda is suing for copyright infringement, breach of contract and misappropriating trade secrets. The publisher is seeking a jury trial and damages.

Polygon has reached out to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Behaviour Interactive for comment on Bethesda Softworks’ lawsuit, which you can read in full below.

Fucking hell, we've reached new levels of decline if Warner Bros are ripping off mobile dross like Fallout Shelter. Which spawn of satan thought that the best fit for a game about killer androids running amok was an uninspired clone of a colony builder?

Disclaimer- I've not played this shit.
 

Cael

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Gotta keep them lawyers busy doing something!

https://www.polygon.com/2018/6/22/1...er-bros-westworld-mobile-game-fallout-shelter

Polygon said:
The suit points out similar gameplay features, including “cartoonish 2D characters in a 3D environment” and the underground multi-room facilities that players explore and build, in both Fallout Shelter and Westworld.
...

In other news, Bethesda claimed they have copyrighted "AK47".

If "cartoonish 2D characters in a 3D environment" is what is at stake here, I would posit that Fallout Shelter ripped off XCom: Apocalypse.
 

vonAchdorf

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I hope it will be revealed during the litigation, how big of a success Fallout Shelter is and how close it it to their traditional titles in revenue.
 

Bester

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I'm actually very disturbed by PBGU's claim and now this claim. They claim they own a genre. Imagine if Doom decided to sue all doom-clones of the time. What the fuck, they'd own the FPS genre license. Which is insane.

I hope they get reprimanded somehow for this shit. Half of PBGU's audience left for Fortnite over their bullshit claim.
 

vonAchdorf

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They are accusing the company of using code they paid for in the next project. You can't copyright the general idea of a game.
 
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I'm actually very disturbed by PBGU's claim and now this claim. They claim they own a genre. Imagine if Doom decided to sue all doom-clones of the time. What the fuck, they'd own the FPS genre license. Which is insane.

I hope they get reprimanded somehow for this shit. Half of PBGU's audience left for Fortnite over their bullshit claim.
Not the same.
They likely had a contract that gave ownership of all assets to Bethesda.
 

AgentBJ09

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Could be another instance of Bethesda being sue-happy, but given what kind of company Warner Bros. is, there's a pretty good chance they're correct on this one. Of course, this type of claim only works if Bethesda can prove code theft as opposed to them making a very similar looking game; given Bethesda's past with this kind of thing...
 

Mech

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Could be another instance of Bethesda being sue-happy, but given what kind of company Warner Bros. is, there's a pretty good chance they're correct on this one. Of course, this type of claim only works if Bethesda can prove code theft as opposed to them making a very similar looking game; given Bethesda's past with this kind of thing...
I take it you didn’t actually read anything.
 
Joined
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Bethesda preceeds Obsidian and was already known for bugs before Obsidian was even founded.

Obsidian is more synonymous with cut content, I'd say.
 

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