PC game accused of purloining Oblivion assets
By
Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor
Limbo of the Lost allegedly borrows environments from Bethesda's latest Elder Scrolls game; publisher caught unawares, developer unreachable.
The word "limbo" is a thesaurus-suggested synonym of "oblivion." So it's oddly fitting that Majestic Studios' Limbo of the Lost is under fire for apparently stealing art from Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
As pointed out by GamePlasma, some of the environments in Limbo of the Lost bear a striking resemblance to areas of Oblivion, from textures used to room layouts and the objects that populate them. Although the similarities in the screenshots are undeniable, the games themselves are quite different in practice.
Published by Tri Synergy, Limbo of the Lost is a point-and-click adventure game in which players guide protagonist Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs as he explores the realm of Limbo and The Keep of Lost Souls at its heart. Released in 2006 for the PC and Xbox 360 and the following year for the PlayStation 3, Oblivion is an open-world role-playing game in which players can create their own characters and save a kingdom from encroaching demons that are tearing holes in the fabric of reality.
A Tri Synergy representative addressed the matter for GameSpot, saying that the publisher had no previous knowledge of the issue. He also said a question had been raised about similar issues with Limbo of the Lost and Eidos' 2004 action adventure game Thief: Deadly Shadows.
"We're seeing this for the first time," the representative emphasized. "We had no idea any of this was going on."
Tri Synergy has already given Limbo of the Lost a limited release, and the representative said that it had not determined what to do regarding plans to release the game to major retailers such as Best Buy. So far, the publisher's attempts to reach the developer have not been successful, given that the team has apparently been on vacation after completing development on Limbo. The representative also said that Tri Synergy has not been in direct contact with Bethesda or Eidos yet.
A representative from Bethesda told GameSpot that the company was aware of the issue but was unable to comment on the matter. An Eidos representative had not returned a request for comment.
By
Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
410 comments
People don't seem to realise that they didn't just steal from oblivion. They also stole from Diablo 2, enclave, morrowind, painkiller, return to castle wolfenstein, thief 3, UT2k3, UT2k4, Vampire the masquerade: bloodlines, lord of the rings online, world of warcraft, and even concept art from D&D. This link is just for the background thefts alone. http://lotl.wikia.com/wiki/Backgrounds
Ludicrious...absolutely ludicrious. it really does look like they stole form Oblivion. What, they couldn't come up with anything original? How lame is that?
Did they really think it would go unnoticed? Especially with the popularity of Oblivion. Such idiots, I could see if they copied an unknown game, but something from Bethesda? I can't believe they would rip the exact same design off, not even try to change a bit. They must of used the ES Construction set....lol
ok everybody here's what i think. i did check the dictionary. the two words Limbo and Oblivion are somewhat related. Plus, Oblivion literally means "complete forgetfulness", and "Limbo of the LOST" adds even more similarity. then i checked these 2 pics. oh wow, truly, even a TES newbie could guess. EVERYTHING was copied from Oblivion, from floor carvings and table design, to walls, texture, lighting, and ALL items such as books, candles, shelves, dishes, wall carpets and alembics. What TriSynergy and Majestic did was to remove the Oblivion playtime components and add their own (compass + hand pointer), with minor lighting and background alterations. By removing Phintias from where he stood and altering the voice acting, we got a Limbo of the Lost scene. I wonder, even traveling between areas will prove to be much the same as Oblivion, as the doors are not animated. Anyone who looks at the Limbo pic without looking at the TES one could very much recognize the alembic, the door design, the wall texture, and the books. All in all this is game is a catastrophical failure, and a disgrace to Bethesda Studios. Laziness has its price.... Thanks for your time! :D :D
Wow thats pretty sad. I am a big fan of Bethesda so its annoying to see them get ripped off. The game industry needs to learn that taking shortcuts, or in this case taking undeserved vacations, while dishing out recycled garbage will not help the consumer OR the producer. This game is probably finished just because of this, and if it does make any revenue now, which I doubt, I have a small feeling Bethesda and/or Eidos will be the only ones seeing a profit. Serves them right.
are people really that stupid? omg you were so lazy you decided to jack the textures and environments from an extremely popular game and thought you'd never get caught??? wow.
these guys have lost ALL respect from everyone, i play Oblivion and all they've done is use the SDK to take all the textures, and for Tri Synergy to say they had no idea, thats the biggest lie i've ever heard. Look at the windows, lighting, the rug on the wall, the counter, the door, the bookshelves and objects, ALL THE SAME. Tri Synergy, that's worse than piracy you fools, and thanks to this no-one will buy your game.
It is amazing that they were so stupid....of course no one who was an Oblivion fan will buy this game...at a glance they just look similar but if you inspect every detail, they are literally the same. Even the alchemy apparatus on the 2nd shelf, the flower pot on top of the little book thing on the main desk, everything is the same.
Hopefully they didn't copy the loot too.... 'cause DANG Bethesda... how many bolts of cloth and shoes can I carry?
I'm not so sure, Oblivion's snoozey environments are so generic and uninspired that it could easily be coincidence.
Well The Publisher Was a J@ck@$$ To relaese a game wich its envirnoments Were Copied From A popular Game With the titile TES:oblivion.Who in the right mind would do that?Well If there was a little brains in their Head The would Have Retextured The Files That they Stole From the Original creator.
These guys just ruined their reputations, and their careers, just cus they were too lazy to make their own game environments....
To me that's just totally insane!! I mean, you gotta know someone is gonna notice, plus, how can you feel confident about your work when you yoink'd it from someone else!
This is the first time I looked at it and my first thought was, "REALLY!?" How on God's green Earth did they ever expect to get away with this. I can see it now: "Hey Jim, maybe we should re-shade and texture this room so that people don't realize we stole from Oblivion" "Nahh, no one will notice, man I got the munchies"
How could they do this and not realize they would be found out. Are people really that stupid....oh wait....yes, they are, they just proved it here. Seriously, they need to disband the company immediately after this.
That is so stupidly funny how similar they are. Heck,you could use the Limbo one on a TES fansite and no1 would notice!
"Hey, you think they'll notice if we copy this? I mean, it wasn't that popular... Nah, you're good." Lawl.
Limbo should just fade from limbo and die for good because it probably would have been a stinky game anyway.
ahhaha what the hell happened here... it looks like the stole the game engine from oblivion... even the books are in the same spot on the screenshots. sue them oblivion!!!
Data dream- you are totally right. Majesco is what i am used to hearing., and i didn`t pay attention when typing. Confused about it, no, screwed up..yeah.. now me and that guy in charge of quality control in Tri are both in trouble..heh.
This is not good......I hope the people responsible, no longer is in a position to repeat the stupid move. Does the company need quality control personnel...I am available.
Just to clarify - and I could see this coming... This IS NOT MAJESCO!!! It is Majestic - which is a completely different company. MAJESCO is a great company (albeit somewhat limited in releases at the moment) and I would hate to see them get a bad rap for something they had NOTHING to do with.
hahaha lol they didnt even try to hide the plagerism it looks like oblivion set to minimum graphics
hahaha lol they didnt even try to hide the plagerism it looks like oblivion set to minimum graphics
The books and test tubes, along with the freakin design on the rug hanging on the wall is EXACTLY THE SAME!!! How could they not have thought that this would bring trouble??
i don`t know much about this kind of thing, but it strikes me that Tri-Synergy was the primary target of the rip-off, rather than Majesco actually thinking the game would be out there. Yes i know, it did have a severely limited release, Just a cap that majesco fooled the publisher, who was green and naively(sad,someone will suffer for it) ..trusting.
Yes they stole the Keeper library from Deadly Shadows for this game as well. I saw the screenshots on a Russian site (Google it if you want to see for yourself) and it is about 98% identical. What a shame. No wonder the developer is laying low right now.
because it apparently contains some similarities with 'Thief: Deadly Shadows' somewhere.
Q question: why is this article in the page of Theif-Deadly Shadows? it has nothing to do with it, right?
i kinda feel sorry for them; its a point and click adventure game for god's sake! what ever oblivion is one of my most favorite games they should burn for ripping them off.
They rip-off the game, but make it with crappier graphics. Sounds like it'll be a real winner.
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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- Publisher(s): 2K Games
- Developer(s): Bethesda Softworks
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Release:
- Classification Board: M
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