Lawsuits are the new gaming apparently, as Bethesda decided to sue Warner Bros and Behaviour Interactive over copyright infringement, not a month after Bluehole did the same with Epic Games. Bethesda might have legal grounds though.
Bethesda have decided to file a lawsuit against Warner Bros and Behaviour Interactive because apparently Westworld Game is too similar to Fallout Shelter. According to an official response from Bethesda, the lawsuit alleges copyright infringement, breach of contract and misappropriation of its intellectual property.
Now the second stance relates directly to Behaviour Interactive's involvement in the development of Fallout Shelter, and apparent misuse of said intellectual property in the process of developing Westworld Game.
According to a contract between Bethesda and Behaviour Interactive back from Fallout Shelter's development days, the publisher would keep the rights to all the resulting intellectual property as well as the game's copyrighted code.
In a for GameSpot, Bethesda claimed that Behaviour Interactive illegally used the aforementioned copyrighted code to develop Westworld Game on top of copying Fallout Shelter's gameplay features, art, animations and other elements.
Apparently, people at Bethesda weren't the only ones who noticed the similarities and "blatant rip-offs", as Westworld Game's official launch trailer currently has 27:73 like/ dislike ratio on YouTube.
Comments have also spelled out loud and clear that the majority of the viewers figured out that the game resembles Fallout Shelter too much, with some of them sarcastically asking whether this is a Westworld mod for Fallout Shelter. Others pointed out the irony is Westworld Game's slogan "Make your own world", as WB obviously didn't take their own advice and actually stole Bethesda's setting.
Bethesda
Bethesda's lawsuit will be looking for compensation and most likely immediate shutting down of Westworld Game. Now this may look a bit far fetched but it is not excluded that such a result could come to pass, especially if Bethesda's legal team manages to prove that their copyrighted code had actually been used to develop Westworld Game. Otherwise, they just may send in the raiders.
