Bethesda Suing Warner Bros for “Blatant Rip-Off” of Fallout Shelter with Westworld Mobile Game

So it looks like Bethesda is not at all happy with Warner Bros. and their new mobile game, based on the hit TV series, Westworld.  Bethesda is suing Warner Bros. for a “blatant rip-off” of their Fallout Shelter game.  Bethesda claim that assets such as art work, design and coding all fall under copyright infringement.  To add further evidence to Bethesda’s claims, apparently the Westworld mobile game even features the same bugs as Fallout Shelter.

The issue comes from development studio Behaviour, who had worked previously worked for Bethesda while developing Fallout Shelter, who then later went on to work for Warner Bros. on the Westworld game, and it is claimed that Behaviour took assets with them when they left Bethesda, as detailed in the suit filed.

Bethesda are suing Behaviour for “breach of contract” and Warner Bros. for “inducement to breach of contract”, while both parties are also being sued for “wilful 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.“

Apparently to add some further context to the Behaviour studio, they were initially hired by Bethesda to develop Fallout Shelter, but once the base game was finished, they gutted the studio, taking about 40 of their staff and sent them to set-up Bethesda Montreal to finish-up Fallout Shelter for release.

It does seem like a messy situation indeed and coming from someone that has played Fallout Shelter and pre-registered for the Westworld game, even before I knew of this lawsuit, I was surprised of how much Westworld resembled Fallout Shelter, and now it all makes sense if true.