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Westworld mobile game is shutting down following lawsuit settlement

Westworld mobile game is shutting down following lawsuit settlement

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The game will be available until mid-March for players

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The official Westworld mobile game has been removed from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store just one month after its publisher settled a lawsuit over the game being “a blatant rip-off” of Bethesda’s Fallout Shelter.

A message now appears in-game announcing its shutdown, adding that people who already have the game installed can continue playing until March 16th, 2019. The message, seen below, also tells players to use all of their in-game currency before the game goes offline completely.

Message in Warner Bros.’ Westworld game.
Message in Warner Bros.’ Westworld game.
Image: Warner Bros. Interactive

Bethesda Softworks, the publisher behind Fallout Shelter, filed a lawsuit in June 2018 against the Westworld game’s publisher and developer, Warner Bros. Interactive and Behaviour Interactive. Bethesda claimed that Warner Bros. and Behaviour Interactive had cloned Fallout Shelter, which Behaviour Interactive also worked on. Bethesda alleged in its lawsuit that Westworld “has the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features, and other gameplay elements” as Fallout Shelter.

The companies agreed to settle in December. Although the terms of the settlement were never made public, it appears that Warner Bros.’ taking Westworld offline was part of the agreement.

The Verge has reached out to Warner Bros. for more details.