According to a TMZ report, Bethesda, the makers of Fallout Shelter (Free) are suing Westworld (Free) developers Behavior Interactive and Warner Brothers alleging they stole their design, artwork, and code. The “smoking gun," as TMZ puts it, is the new Westworld game has the same bugs that plagued an earlier version of Fallout Shelter. Bethesda aims to shut down the game and get a slice of the profits.
I’d love to say this is unexpected, but for anyone who has spent time in both games, the similarities are fairly uncanny. When we first were shown the game at GDC, I was completely blown away by how close many aspects of Westworld looked and felt like Fallout shelter. If Bethesda’s accusations turn out to be true, it would make a ton of sense.
Historically, Bethesda hasn’t been a publisher that often engages in frivolous lawsuits, so I feel fairly confident in saying that they wouldn’t be suing Behavior Interactive if they didn’t think they had a super strong case against them. I’m really curious to see how this all plays out, as if this is all true it casts a really bad light both on HBO and Apple for heavily promoting an allegedly stolen game.
Of course with the pace that things happen on the internet in 2018, even if it’s revealed that the source is 100% stolen everyone will forget after two days… But, still. Interesting none the less.
