It might not look like anything to you… but it certainly looks familiar to Bethesda!
Recently, an all new mobile game was released based on HBO’s smash hit series, Westworld. The simulation game puts players in control of the park, essentially stepping into the shoes of Robert Ford. Just days after its release, however, the Westworld game is generating some major problems for Warner Bros. and co-developer Behaviour Interactive.
According to Polygon, Bethesda is hitting Warner Bros. and Behaviour with a copyright infringement lawsuit. Bethesda argues that Westworld is far too similar to their 2015 mobile game Fallout Shelter, which was also co-developed with Behaviour. Per the lawsuit, Westworld “has the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and other gameplay elements” as the Fallout game.
The suit also alleges that a bug in early versions of Fallout Shelter is present in Westworld. This suggests that the two companies merely copied Westworld‘s build, only making “cosmetic modifications” to pass the game off as original. According to the suit, “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.”
You can watch a trailer for the mobile Westworld game below!
