Warner Bros' Westworld mobile game, which bore a notable resemblance to Bethesda Softworks' Fallout Shelter game for smartphones, has been removed from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. The removal comes seven months after Bethesda sued Warner Bros by calling the Westworld app a "blatant rip-off" of Bethesda's 2015 game Fallout Shelter.

westworld

Westworld on iOS

The lawsuit centered around Behaviour Interactive, the game developer that worked on both Fallout Shelter and Westworld, and who Bethesda accused of breach of contract, copyright infringement, unfair competition, and misappropriation of trade secrets. The dispute continued into the year, and in early January 2019 the companies released a simple one-line statement that said both parties "have amicably resolved" the lawsuit.

After all of this, the @WestworldMobile Twitter account this week released its own statement, noting that the game has been removed from the iOS ‌App Store‌ and Google Play Store as of January 15, 2019. This means players can no longer make in-app purchases. On April 16, 2019, the app will officially close and no longer be supported by the developers. The developers warn players to spend any in-game currency before that date.

ww statement


In the original lawsuit, Bethesda requested the Westworld mobile game to be removed from distribution, so it appears that part of the amicable resolution to the case was the official discontinuation of Westworld on iOS and Android. Users on Twitter asked about potential refunds for the in-app purchases they've already made in the game, but the company has yet to respond regarding this matter.

For those unaware, the similarities between Fallout Shelter and Westworld were striking. Both games task the player with building an underground base of some kind, stocked with interactive characters from a well-known property, and micro-managing small tasks to keep their shelter/Delos facility up and running. Most damning for Westworld and Behaviour Interactive was the discovery that the developer appeared to use the same copyrighted computer code from Fallout Shelter inside of Westworld, down to both games having the same unique bug.

falloutshelter

Fallout Shelter on iOS

Although Westworld has been removed from the iOS ‌App Store‌, it still remains online for now, so players who already downloaded it have three months to play the game while it remains online through April 16.

(Thanks, Nate!)

Top Rated Comments

Juicy Box Avatar
81 months ago
Although Westworld has been removed from the iOS App Store, it still remains online for now, so players who already downloaded it have three months to play the game while it remains online through April 16.
I really think this is one of the biggest problems with mobile gaming, digital media, and gaming on the iOS.

A game can just be lost forever.

I play a lot of retro games, but for many iOS titles, that just won’t be possible.

I can play my old Atari 2600 or 5200 games, my old NES, SNES, N64, GC, and GB games. If there was one I wanted to play , but don’t currently own, chances are I can find it online somewhere.

But, the user has little control over the fate of digital media, and once games are no longer available on the App Store, they are just gone and eventually forgotten.

I just find it a little sad.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ArtOfWarfare Avatar
81 months ago
That "iPhone" doesn't have a notch.
iPhone screenshots are always full rectangles - the rounded corners and notched part are filled in. Apple's developer guides explicitly tell developers to treat the drawable area as a full rectangle and to not avoid drawing in the corners or notches just because current devices have those features. That allows Apple to change the curvature of the corners or adjust the notch dimensions and not worry about apps not drawing in those spaces appropriately.

At the same time, obviously developers should be mindful of those features and not put important information or require the user to touch those areas.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mattyj2001 Avatar
81 months ago
No, the article originally showed a phone, captioned "Westworld on iOS", without a notch (see my updated first post for the image). They've updated the article to change the image, but didn't note that they did so as journalists normally do. Thanks for dev-splaining to a developer though.
Thanks for being so pedantic about a screenshot. Not a waste of everyone's time at all.
[doublepost=1547661908][/doublepost]The headline really should be "Shady game developer tries to sell the same game twice." I wonder how Zynga got away with all their game thievery back in the day.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
makitango Avatar
81 months ago
The scourge of online games; they decide when you can play and when you can‘t.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mikey44 Avatar
81 months ago
I really think this is one of the biggest problems with mobile gaming, digital media, and gaming on the iOS.

A game can just be lost forever.

I play a lot of retro games, but for many iOS titles, that just won’t be possible.

But, the user has little control over the fate of digital media, and once games are no longer available on the App Store, they are just gone and eventually forgotten.

I just find it a little sad.
I miss Rolando, which was one of the first most popular games on iOS when it first came out, and the developer was bought out, and it's just gone. Unless I had a backup of it in iTune... wait, oh, and the developer would have to make it available in 64 bit. I agree, it's quite sad. :(

I wonder how much money I have wasted on apps that no longer are listed, or are just gone from the App Store. It kinda pisses me off.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GubbyMan Avatar
81 months ago
I have my iPhone 3GS with all the games I used to play on it. Two of the games I have are Tap Tap Revenge 2 & 3 installed on it. I play these games every once in a while. Tapulous the company behind the games shut down their servers about 6 or 7 years ago so no one have been able to install them since then even though they are still in the purchased tab and can be downloaded on iOS 11 or prior.

The games have to contact the server the first time they are launched. So I could not get them to work even on my iPhone 5 with 32-bit support. If anything happens to my iPhone 3GS and I can not reinstall these apps with the same data then I will loose the Tap Tap games forever and I will never be able to relive the memory of playing them again.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
watchOS 11 Thumb 2 1

Apple Releases watchOS 11.4 With Sleep Alarm Update

Tuesday April 1, 2025 10:34 am PDT by
Apple today released watchOS 11.4, the fourth major update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.4 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2. watchOS 11.4 can be downloaded on a connected iPhone by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software,...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Visa and American Express Vying to Win Apple Card Deal in 'Fierce' Fight

Tuesday April 1, 2025 1:50 pm PDT by
Visa wants to pay Apple approximately $100 million to be the new payment network for the Apple Card, reports The Wall Street Journal. As of right now, the Apple Card is on the Mastercard payment network, but that is set to change because Apple is ending its partnership with Goldman Sachs. Both American Express and Visa are vying to replace Mastercard as Apple's card services provider, while...
iOS 18

Apple Seeds First Beta of iOS 18.5 to Developers

Wednesday April 2, 2025 10:11 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming just two days after Apple released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4. iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. We don't yet know what Apple is introducing in the iOS 18.5...