Bethesda And Warner Bros Settle Lawsuit Over Fallout Shelter Rip-Off

TheGamer

By Sam Watanuki

Published Jan 8, 2019

Bethesda has reached an agreement with Warner Bros. and Behaviour Interactive after suing the companies in 2018.

via Microsoft

While Fallout 76 may not have received the glowing reviews that Bethesda was hoping for, the studio did receiving some good news regarding one of its other Fallout titles.

ZeniMax Media – of which Bethesda Softworks is a subsidiary – reportedly reached an agreement with Warner Bros. and Behaviour Interactive after suing the companies in 2018 for releasing a Westworld mobile game that Bethesda called a “blatant rip-off” of Fallout Shelter.

To get you caught up to speed, Bethesda filed the lawsuit in June 2018, alleging that the Westworld mobile game based off the hit HBO television show and developed by Behaviour Interactive, had “the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and other gameplay elements” as Fallout Shelter, which was released in 2015.

Behaviour Interactive really did not have much of a defense, especially considering the fact that the company had actually assisted Bethesda with the development of Fallout Shelter. In fact, the games were so similar, that many of the same exact bugs were found in both games.

Warner Bros. stood by Behaviour Interactive at the time of the accusation, submitting a statement to Polygon:

“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’ Behavior to use the Fallout Shelter code in Westworld.”

However, that sentiment longer seems to be the case, with the lawsuit having ended in a settlement and dismissed in prejudice.

Terms of the settlement have not been released, but Bethesda and Behaviour Interactive provided a joint statement, indicating that the companies “have amicably resolved the lawsuit Bethesda brought against Behaviour and others related to the Fallout Shelter and Westworld mobile games.”

It isn’t very surprising that the lawsuit was settled, considering how remarkably similar both mobile games were and Behaviour's involvement in both titles. While the victory does not necessarily make up for the negative marks surrounding Fallout 76¸ it is still a win nonetheless for Bethesda and the Fallout franchise.