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Bethesda Sues Warner Bros, Calls Its Westworld Game 'Blatant Rip-Off' of Fallout Shelter (polygon.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the copy-and-paste dept.

Bethesda, the video game publisher behind Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, is suing Warner Bros. and Fallout Shelter co-developer Behavior Interactive over the recently released Westworld, alleging that the mobile game based on HBO's TV series is a "blatant rip-off" of Fallout Shelter. Polygon reports: In a suit filed in a Maryland U.S. District Court, Bethesda alleges that Westworld -- developed by Behaviour and released this week for Android and iOS -- "has the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and other gameplay elements" as Fallout Shelter. Fallout Shelter was originally released in 2015 for mobile devices. The game was later ported to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.

Bethesda said in its suit that Behaviour uses "the same copyrighted computer code created for Fallout Shelter in Westworld," alleging that a bug evident in an early version of Fallout Shelter (which was later fixed) also appears in Westworld. Bethesda alleges the companies "copied Fallout Shelter's features and then made cosmetic modifications for Westworld's 'western' theme."

33 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Huh by ChromeAeonuim · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'll be darned, I didn't know those crapfest microtransaction filled mobile games had enough differences between them in the first place to have lawsuit worthy similarities. You learn something new every day.

    1. Re:Huh by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 3, Informative

      Fallout Shelter is easily playable without paying microtransactions. I haven't played Westworld.

      --
      Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
    2. Re:Huh by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Informative

      Fallout Shelter is pretty good, no need to buy anything, you can't do too much at once, and you dont even need to be online (my gripe with other mobile games which stop working when I go mobile). When I first saw the spam attack trying to get me to play Westworld I did notice the similarities to Fallout Shelter even before I saw this article.

    3. Re:Huh by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Fallout Shelter is pretty good, no need to buy anything, you can't do too much at once, and you dont even need to be online

      Can you have more than 200 dwellers yet? I stopped playing because the game got severely boring when I could no longer expand and all my rooms were fully upgraded.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Huh by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Start over, or find a new game.

    5. Re:Huh by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      You could have just said no, and the game is still boring. I found several more interesting games already. I presume that they aren't implementing a higher dweller count because they are bad at programming and that's as many as they can manage. From their history of creating infinite massive bugs, we know this to be a plausible explanation.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    6. Re:Huh by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      At 200 the game was very slow to start up. I haven't found better games really, except for some puzzle locked-room things that don't last long. I'm not "gaming" on the phone, it's for a few minutes of distraction at time, not like a PC game.

    7. Re:Huh by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I've been playing idle kingdoms lately, and #ymbab as well but I'm getting tired of that again. Also polytopia.

      At 200 the game punched my TF201 right in the nuts... but it still ran fine on my MK908, the Nexus 7 2nd, or the Nexus 4. And there is also a PC version these days, and last I looked, it was also still limited to 200 dwellers.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Bethesda believes they just re-used the code by BenJeremy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Considering it's the same developer, and the Westworld game seems to be just a reskin/mod of their Fallout Shelter game, complete with the same bugs, the lawsuit isn't surprising.

    I have no problem with this lawsuit, unlike the "similarity" lawsuits like the PUBG/Fortnite stupidity.

    1. Re:Bethesda believes they just re-used the code by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Reminds me of the very early text adventure game that was released for the TRS-80 back in the early days.. It was just the classic text "Adventure" with the description strings replaced, to change from exploring "colossal cave" to exploring an Egyptian pyramid.

      For instance: In place of the delicate ming vase and the pillow, you find a miniature mummy that will shatter if you put it back down ("drop it") unless you carry it a little way and find a "mummy case" to put it in.

      If you remember the winning moves in Adventure you could run straight through this one as well. Boring...

      --
      Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    2. Re: Bethesda believes they just re-used the code by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That description of the mummy sounds like Scott Adams adventure Pyramid of Doom.

    3. Re:Bethesda believes they just re-used the code by Megane · · Score: 1

      It was Pyramid 2000.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  3. Did they have it written into a contract by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    that they couldn't re-use code? If so they company's boned, but if not, well, Bethesda is basically run by a guy who got kicked out of Wallstreet for being too greedy. Let that one sink in. I like their games, but they're not exactly known as the most charitable company in the world. By all accounts they released New Vegas in a buggy and unfinished state so they could cheap Obsidian out of a Meta-Critic bonus...

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Did they have it written into a contract by LordKronos · · Score: 5, Informative

      Did they have it written into a contract that they couldn't re-use code? If so they company's boned, but if not,

      Actually, it's the reverse of that. Unless it's written into the contract that they CAN reuse the code, the company is probably boned.

      Generally the law is that whoever writes the code keeps the copyright, unless someone else paid them to write it (ie: a work for hire) and the contract did not state otherwise. So if they wrote the game and then sold it to Bethesda, they're OK. If Bethesda contracted them to write it and wrote in the contract that they can keep the copyrights, then they're OK. But the most likely scenario here is that Bethesda contracted them, and the contract did NOT say they can keep the copyright, which would mean Bethesda wins.

      Now of course, it depends on the nature of the bugs. If, for example, the bug is the result of some code library they wrote years ago (before the contract), then that particular code would not have been part of the work-for-hire and would most likely be treated like any other licensed 3rd party library.

    2. Re:Did they have it written into a contract by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 2

      Generally the law is that whoever writes the code keeps the copyright, unless someone else paid them to write it (ie: a work for hire) and the contract did not state otherwise. So if they wrote the game and then sold it to Bethesda, they're OK. If Bethesda contracted them to write it and wrote in the contract that they can keep the copyrights, then they're OK. But the most likely scenario here is that Bethesda contracted them, and the contract did NOT say they can keep the copyright, which would mean Bethesda wins.

      You have it backwards. Work for hire has to be specified as such. So, unless it's written into the contract that they couldn't re-use the cod e(by making it work for hire), they can.

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    3. Re:Did they have it written into a contract by LordKronos · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, he's not wrong. On further investigation we were both right. My understanding was only correct with respect to an employee, but he is correct when it's a contractor creating the work, which is surely the case here.

    4. Re:Did they have it written into a contract by Khyber · · Score: 1

      "An employee cant walk away and reuse code he wrote for his employer without explicit permission."

      You must be too stupid to see this is a contracted thing, thus the coding company is NOT an employee.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    5. Re:Did they have it written into a contract by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      which is surely the case here

      It is. From the complaint:

      Under the agreement, all Behaviour work product of any kind, including code, designs, artwork, layouts, and other assets and materials for FALLOUT SHELTER were authored and owned by Bethesda ab initio as works made for hire

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    6. Re:Did they have it written into a contract by Spazmania · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Get ready for another reversal: Unless created by a direct employee (someone who gets a W2 form from you at the end of the year) "works made for hire" must fall under one of 9 categories established under the law. If the work doesn't fit in to one of the nine, it doesn't matter what the contract says: the copyright vests in the company that made it not the company that paid.

      https://www.copyright.gov/circ...

      Bethesda hopes Behaviour's work is a "contribution to a collective work" but generally that means a -small- contribution like one article for an encyclopedia.

      Here's the lesson: don't write a contract which says you own the contractors work. The law may contradict you. Write a contract which says the contractor agrees to assign you all rights to their work. That's enforceable in court.

      --
      Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
    7. Re:Did they have it written into a contract by Kaenneth · · Score: 1

      agrees to >exclusively assign you

    8. Re:Did they have it written into a contract by Vreejack · · Score: 1

      Bethesda has a track record of being somewhat competent here, so I would assume they knew what they were doing when they bought the code. Furthermore, they had to consult a lawyer before filing suit, so unless this is some edge case where the facts are hazy they probably have a good case. Did the contractor think they could develop a library "for internal use" thinking they could re-skin it and use it over and over again? What a deal! Especially since Bethesda probably paid them to develop this "library."

      --
      "Will future ages believe that such stupid bigotry ever existed!" -- Ivanhoe
    9. Re:Did they have it written into a contract by Spazmania · · Score: 1

      And audiovisual work in this context would not tend to include the apparatus which displays the work. If they re-used the graphics and sounds then sure. It doesn't read like they did.

      --
      Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
  4. You made a shitty game out of OUR shitty game! by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    How are you going to compensate us for all the money we're going to lose now that no one is going to be downloading our free game?

    We demand justice, sir!

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  5. Re:Are Maeve or Charlotte Hale in the game? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    As if lots of movies don't do SJW casting to hire people that aren't likable and can't act. Just look at the recent Star Wars movie that failed. People want to be entertained and interested in a story. They don't want to be preached at.

  6. Potentual outcome by meglon · · Score: 2

    They better hope their lawsuit doesn't end in a draw.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    1. Re:Potentual outcome by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      What does video assisted thoracic surgery have to do with it?

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    2. Re:Potentual outcome by meglon · · Score: 1

      The games based in Westworld though.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    3. Re:Potentual outcome by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      That's not even on the first page of hits.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  7. <blink>YOU'RE AN IDIOT!</blink> by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    <blink>YOU'RE AN IDIOT!</blink>

  8. Re:Are Maeve or Charlotte Hale in the game? by n3r0.m4dski11z · · Score: 1

    what new kind of shitpost is this. Multiple personality troll?

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    -
  9. Re:Are Maeve or Charlotte Hale in the game? by Megol · · Score: 1

    If your are trying to troll you is a complete failure. A skilled fisherperson* lays out a tasty bait and let the scent and presentation lure all to reply, a failure of an idiot use the lazy carpet-bomb variant you (I hope) are showing here.
    If not you are just a complete failure of not only trolling but of life itself.

    No matter why this stinking crap is flowing down here you deserve a spanking you pathetic little man. Not that anyone would ever want to touch you, probably the reason you unleashed this spam attack in the first place.
    (* bet at least 10 people will get incredibly angry when reading this)

  10. Re:Are Maeve or Charlotte Hale in the game? by i286NiNJA · · Score: 1

    It's fucking bizarre. I'd really like to know his motivation for talking to himself.
    Anyhow we can assume he's not a heterosexual man because even if Delores is the hottest, I can't think of a woman on that show that I'd throw out of bed.

  11. Re: Are Maeve or Charlotte Hale in the game? by i286NiNJA · · Score: 1

    Someone please explain this guy to me. Is he just insane? Does he think this is lulzy trolling? Is someone paying him?