Warner Bros. Responds To Bethesda Westworld Lawsuit, Todd Howard Chimes In

Shortly following its release, Bethesda filed a lawsuit against WB Games and Behaviour Interactive over their mobile Westworld game, based on the hit HBO series of the same name. It noted in its suit that the release ripped off assets from its own Fallout Shelter and even gathered evidence in regards to some glitches being in the exact same place in both games.

It’s taken a little while, but Warner Bros. has finally responded to the lawsuit, noting that Bethesda’s claims are “baseless.”

While speaking with GamesIndustry International, a rep for the company noted, “As one of the world’s leading creators of intellectual property, 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 appears that the lawsuit is moving forward anyway, based on the evidence that Bethesda has gathered. It wants the Westworld game to be removed from digital stores and is also asking for actual and punitive damages.

As noted in our previous story, Bethesda did hire Behaviour previously to work on Fallout Shelter, before it opted to produce the Westworld game for WB. So it would have access to the assets though it claims that none of them were used.

On top of this, Bethesda’s Todd Howard, recently speaking with Venturebeat, didn’t have much to say on the matter. He did note, however, that “I had to lay it for legal reasons, to form an opinion.” But he stopped just short on giving said opinion, as he’s apparently staying mum until the matter is settled in court.

It’ll be interesting to see where this case goes in the weeks ahead. But chances are Bethesda will have more evidence on hand while WB Games continues to refute the claims.

The Westworld mobile game is available now for iOS and Android and is free-to-play.