PHOTO SOURCE: Behaviour Interactive/WB Games
Warner Bros. Interactive and Bethesda Softworks have reached an amicable agreement in a lawsuit over the former company’s mobile Westworld game.
In June 2018, Bethesda Softworks sued Warner Bros. Interactive and Behaviour Interactive over a mobile game based on HBO’s Westworld series. Bethesda claimed the game was “a blatant rip-off of Fallout Shelter,” the Fallout-based management game that debuted in 2015.
What made the claim especially interesting is that Behavior also developed Fallout Shelter, leading to Bethesda’s allegation that it wasn’t just visually similar, but that the studio used “Bethesda’s computer code, game designs, and other intellectual property as the foundation for the Westworld game.” The appearance of at least one bug in the Westworld demo that was identical to a bug in the initial release of Fallout Shelter seemed to bolster that claim even further.
PHOTO SOURCE: Behaviour Interactive/WB Games
Warner Bros. Interactive issued the following statement to Polygon at the time of the lawsuit:
“As one of the world’s leading creators of intellectual property, including the ground-breaking television series Westworld, Warner Bros. has a deep respect for intellectual property rights. As such, the assertions by Bethesda Softworks that Warner’s Westworld mobile game improperly used source code from Bethesda’s Fallout Shelter are as surprising as they are unsubstantiated. Warner Bros. has been assured by the game developer, Behavior Interactive, that Bethesda’s allegations are untrue and that none of Bethesda’s code was used in the Westworld game. Moreover, contrary to Bethesda’s baseless accusation, Warner Bros. at no time “induced” Behavior to use the Fallout Shelter code in Westworld.”
A notice filed in a federal court on December 12th, 2018, however, stated that both Bethesda and Warner Bros. Interactive had come to an amicable agreement and settled the lawsuit. In addition, the filing states that Bethesda dismissed its claims with prejudice. This means Bethesda can’t bring forth the same allegations in the future. Although it’s unknown what the exact settlement between the two companies is, both companies have chosen to bear their own costs and attorney’s fees.
Both games are available for download on Apple’s iOS App Store and the Google Play store for Android devices.
