Warner Bros. Describes Bethesda’s Fallout Shelter Lawsuit as “Baseless”
Last week, Bethesda filed a major lawsuit against Warner Bros. The lawsuit alleged that the recently published Westworld mobile game, created by Behaviour Interactive, was a “blatant rip-off” of Fallout Shelter. Now, Warner Bros. has published a fierce rebuke of the studio’s claims, and the Fallout Shelter lawsuit in general.
Bethesda’s Lawsuit Against Warner Bros.
Put simply, Bethesda is attempting to sue Behaviour Interactive, and by extension, Warner Bros. over charges of; breach of contract, copyright infringement, and misappropriating trade secrets. Behaviour Interactive was the studio which developed Fallout Shelter for Bethesda back in 2015. Bethesda has claimed that the studio used copyrighted code from their game to create the new Westworld mobile game; a title which certainly has many similarities to Fallout Shelter. They also claimed that Behaviour Interactive re-purposed assets from their game. In one instance, they pointed to a bug which appeared in an early build of Fallout Shelter; an identical bug also appears in Westworld.
The full lawsuit was published online.
Bethesda does not have a history of filing frivolous lawsuits; the studio’s legal history only spans two legal disputes. In 2009, the studio sued Interplay Entertainment. That lawsuit ended in 2012; with Bethesda paying £2,000,000 to Interplay in exchange for the full rights to retail Interplay’s Fallout titles, and the right to develop a Fallout MMO. In 2011, Bethesda and ZeniMax Media sued Mojang over the name of the planned “Scrolls” game. The companies reached a settlement in 2012.
Warner Bros.’ Response
Less than a week after the lawsuit was filed in a Maryland US District Court, Warner Bros. published a response online. “As one of the world’s leading creators of intellectual property,” the company states, “including the ground-breaking television series Westworld, Warner Bros. has a deep respect for intellectual property rights. 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.”
It may be important to note that Warner Bros. states that they have; “been assured by the game developer, Behaviour Interactive” that the claims are baseless. If any wrongdoing did occur, it’s possible that Warner Bros. may not actually be aware of it. Major legal disputes of this sort can last for months, if not years. As a result, it will probably be a long time before the two parties reach a resolution.