Westworld game hit with lawsuit by Bethesda, claims it steals Fallout Shelter code

When the Westworld mobile game was first announced, many people commented on how similar it looked to Fallout Shelter, the hit free-to-play game from Bethesda Softworks. As it turns out, Bethesda thinks the Westworld game is too similar to Fallout Shelter, and has now filed a lawsuit against the game’s developer Behaviour Interactive and Warner Bros.

The lawsuit, which is posted at Polygon, reveals that Behaviour Interactive actually worked on Fallout Shelter in 2014, a year before the game was first launched in 2015, under a work-for-hire contract. Bethesda then claims that when Warner Bros contracted with Behaviour to create the Westworld mobile game, the developer cut costs by using “Bethesda’s copyrighted code, trade secrets, and other rights” to make the new game. In fact, Bethesda claims that code found in the Westworld game contains the same bugs that were discovered and later fixed in earlier versions of Fallout Shelter.

Bethesda also notes that the Westworld game uses the same kind of 2D cartoony art style as Fallout Shelter. Similar type of underground facilities are also found in both games. Bethesda is asking the courts to order the removal of the Westworld game from public distribution, and also wants part of the profits that were generated from the game. So far neither Behaviour Interactive or Warner Bros have issued a formal response to this lawsuit.