A trio of companies known best to our audience for their MMOs are gearing up for a big court battle in the streets of Sweetwater.
Bethsoft is apparently suing Behaviour Interactive and Warner Bros. over alleged copyright theft in the brand-new Westworld mobile game. You’ll recall Behaviour from its development of MMO Eternal Crusade, and of course Bethsoft owns Fallout – it’s Fallout Shelter that Bethsoft believes was “ripped off” here.
Bethsoft says Behaviour and WB breached their contract, misappropriated trade secrets, infringed on copyrights, and unfairly competed with it in relation to the two games. Apparently, Behaviour developed Fallout Shelter for Bethsoft and stands accused of reusing its design, actual code (complete with identical bugs), and “substantially similar gameplay” for Westworld for Warner Bros., entirely without permission.
“The Westworld game is a blatant rip-off of 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 lawsuit filed in Maryland yesterday reads; it further demands that the court stop distribution of the Westworld game and award Bethesda appropriate damages.
I gave the new Westworld game a spin last night myself since I’m a big fan of the show (the show itself is basically an MMO sandbox, and MMO fans should really check it out). It’s a cross between any Tiny Tower game, The Sims, and a standard real-time restaurant/etc. management sim. You’ve probably played it a million times before (and a million times before Fallout Shelter too). While the setting is intriguing and the graphics are slick, the cash shop is ridiculous and ultimately made me uninstall. It’s also loaded with a weird assortment of light spoilers and anachronisms that will confuse you whether or not you’re caught up on the series. Either way, if you’re going to check it out, you should probably do it sooner rather than later since it seems pretty convincing that there might not be a later.
