Bethesda says its legal disputes over the Westworld mobile game it called a "blatant rip-off" of Fallout Shelter are now resolved
The Westworld game is still available for download
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Update: Just over six months after Bethesda said it would pursue legal action against the developer of the Westworld mobile game, Bethesda announced in a press release that the two parties have "amicably resolved" their dispute. It's rare to hear details about out-of-court settlements (they often include clauses forbidding either party to publicly discuss them), but the Westworld game remains available for download on iOS and Android.
Original story: Westworld fans who downloaded the freshly-launched mobile game may have been surprised at how closely it resembles 2015's Fallout Shelter. Bethesda certainly was, and it's none too pleased with Warner Bros. and Shelter co-developer Behaviour Interactive. The company has filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for damages and demanding that the Westworld mobile game (at least in its current state) be pulled from app stores.
"The Westworld game is a blatant rip-off of Fallout Shelter," reads the lawsuit. "Working with the same copyrighted computer code used by Fallout Shelter, Westworld has the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and other gameplay elements as Fallout Shelter, all of which are owned by Bethesda."
So what does that mean in non-legal jargon? Fallout Shelter and the code which runs it is indeed owned by Bethesda, but was developed by Behaviour Interactive, an independent studio. The lawsuit alleges that Behaviour took the code it developed for Fallout Shelter (which would belong to Bethesda) to Warner Bros. in order to create the Westworld mobile game.
Bethesda's list of evidence is long, but one in particular stands out and could be seen arguably as a smoking gun: bugs. Or rather, a very specific bug. Bethesda argues that while in the Westworld game's demonstration mode, "the view is out-of-focus and the scene that appears is far to the right and below the targeted landscape image. It is as if a camera capturing the scene had been inadvertently pointed to the lower right foreground and then slowly refocuses on the central image."
Bethesda says it knows this to be evidence of Behaviour using Fallout Shelter code because... the identical problem appeared in internal versions of Fallout Shelter but was fixed before that game was released to the public. Hey, Bethesda knows its bugs.
Get the best games and entertainment news, reviews, tips and offers delivered to your inbox every week by signing up to the GamesRadar+ newsletter today.
Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox
- Games like Fallout Shelter to play next

Sam is a former News Editor here at GamesRadar+. His expert words have appeared on many of the web's well-known gaming sites, including Joystiq, Penny Arcade, Destructoid, and G4 Media, among others. Sam has a serious soft spot for MOBAs, MMOs, and emo music. Forever a farm boy, forever a '90s kid.


