Back in June of 2018, Bethesda filed lawsuit against Behaviour Interactive and its supposed Fallout Shelter clone, the Westworld Mobile game. The two games share remarkably similar features and mechanics revolving around maintaining a 2D colony and its occupants; Bethesda subsequently claimed that the concept was stolen by Behaviour. Fast forward about six months, and the case was supposedly amicably settled between the two companies, with a short press statement jointly released by the parties involved stating that the matter has been resolved.
Back then, there were no details as to what the resolution consisted of, but yesterday, the aftermath came to light. The official Twitter account for Westworld Mobile sent out a notice announcing that the game will soon be removed from both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store effective immediately. Furthermore, the game itself will shut down on April 16, 2019, so the company urges players to spend any in-game currency by then.
It’s important to note that even if the game is downloaded on a player’s device, the game going offline in April means it will no longer be playable. According to HBO Games Support’s update on the situation, it explicitly mentions this being the case, thus the call for players to use up any in-game currency in the next few months.
The announcement ends with the traditional thanking of the players for their support, and an expression of appreciation for the participating community. While the tweet doesn’t outright state the closure as a direct consequence of the lawsuit settlement, the writing is clearly on the wall. It would have been rather surprising to see Bethesda agree to let go of the suit amicably without some kind of compromise from Behaviour Interactive, especially given that Fallout Shelter has generated an impressive $90+ million in lifetime revenue for the publishing giant.
This is a rare, and much needed win for Bethesda, during a time when the woes of Fallout 76 have cost the developers a lot of headache. The gaming giant is still trying to figure out the growing pains of a multiplayer-only Fallout title while working on its much-anticipated next-gen projects, so reaching an agreeable outcome for its small mobile title was probably a needed respite.