Bethesda is suing Warner Bros. and Fallout Shelter co-developer Behaviour Interactive over a recently released Westworld mobile game, with Bethesda calling it a “blatant rip-off.”
In a suit filed in a Maryland U.S. District Court, the Fallout Shelter publisher alleges that Behaviour’s Westworld has “the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and other gameplay elements” as its title.
Bethesda continues to allege that Behaviour has used “the same copyrighted computer code created for Fallout Shelter in Westworld,” pointing to a bug that featured in early versions of the game that also appears in Warner Bros.’ new title.
Finally, Bethesda alleges that Behaviour and Warner Bros., “copied Fallout Shelter’s features and then made cosmetic modifications for Westworld’s ‘western’ theme” and overall that “Behaviour breached its contract with Bethesda and utilized its restricted access to Bethesda’s intellectual property… [to] offer players the widely popular gameplay experience found in Fallout Shelter.”
Bethesda is suing for copyright infringement, misappropriating trade secrets and breach of contract. The publisher is seeking damages through a jury trial.
We’ll update this story as more is known.
Westworld is available now on iOS and Android, and Fallout Shelter is available on Windows PC, Xbox One, PS4, Switch, iOS and Android.
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