Just last week, we’ve heard that Bethesda filed a copyright infringement lawsuit on Westworld Mobile for using Fallout Shelter’s game codes. To recap, Bethesda hired Behaviour Interactive to develop Fallout Shelter, who was also hired to develop Westworld Mobile. Both games have some similarities in terms of gameplay experience and character shading and behavior as well. The only difference is just the UI and skins based on their theme.
Below is Warner Bros.’ response to Bethesda’s lawsuit sent to IGN:
“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, Behaviour 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” Behaviour to use the Fallout Shelter code in Westworld.”
Warner Bros.’ response called Bethesda’s allegations ‘baseless accusations’ and defended Behaviour Interactive in using their Fallout Shelter codes for Westworld Mobile. As based on the lawsuit, No. 86. “Warner Bros. has a direct financial interest in Behaviour’s infringing activitiesthrough the resulting reduced costs and expedited development of the Westworld mobile game.“, was probably the false accusations that Warner Bros. was talking about. There is no way that Bethesda could come up with that unless there’s a mole in Warner Bros..
However if these are really just false accusations and the game’s codes were replicate-able (since Fallout Shelter was launched in 2015), then maybe Bethesda should retract their lawsuit. Unless of course, there are real evidences.