With the release of the Westworld mobile game, Bethesda initiated legal action on publishers Warner Bros. and developers Behaviour Interactive as it is “a blatant rip-off” to Fallout Shelter, which Behaviour had previously done contract work on. Bethesda even pointed out a specific bug on the Westworld game to make their case.
Warner Bros. has now responded to these allegations. Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz, the publisher is disputing the claim that its mobile game share source code from Bethesda’s game, which they admit to share some similar concepts.
“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, “ the statement reads.
“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.”
Now the onus should be on Behaviour to prove that the game is indeed using a different source code from the early Fallout Shelter builds they were involved in. The bug in the lawsuit in question was not seen on launch of Fallout Shelter, which development has been taken over by Bethesda Game Studios Montreal by December 2015.
Source: Gamesindustry.biz