Bethesda lawsuit claims ‘Westworld’ game is ‘Fallout Shelter’ rip-off

Bethesda Softworks filed a lawsuit this week against Behavior Interactive and Warner Bros., alleging that the new Westworld mobile game is a "blatant rip-off" of its Fallout Shelter, Polygon reports. The company cites a number of reviews of Westworld that noted the similarities and points to specific parts of Westworld's gameplay and imag ery that it says are largely indifferentiable from Fallout Shelter. "Working with the same copyrighted computer code used by Fallout Shelter, Westworld has the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and other gameplay elements as Fallout Shelter, all of which are owned by Bethesda," the company says in its suit.

Bethesda worked with Behavior when it was developing Fallout Shelter and the contract between the two companies stipulated that "all Behavior work product of any kind, including code, designs, artwork, layouts and other assets and materials for Fallout Shelter were authored and owned by Bethesda," according to the lawsuit. But when Behavior began working with Warner Bros. on the Westworld game, Bethesda claims Behavior basically copied Fallout Shelter and then tweaked it to make it look more western-themed. "In so doing, 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," says Bethesda.

Bethesda even notes that some bugs present in earlier versions of Fallout Shelter were included in the Westworld game demo.

A few years ago, Bethesda sued Mojang Specifications over the title of its game Scrolls, saying it was too close to its own Elder Scrolls. In a settlement, Bethesda agreed to let Mojang keeps "Scrolls" as a title, but wouldn't allow any sequels to the game to use the word in their titles.

Bethesda is asking that Warner Bros. and Behavior be ordered to remove the Westworld game from distribution and to stop supporting it. It's also seeking damages, both actual and punitive, as well as the costs of its attorneys' fees.

Source: Polygon



via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2IfA3GU
RSS Feed

If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml, then send me

IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more