Plagiarists do Oblivion
June 11th, 2008Allanon just sent along this story where Game Plasma’s eagle-eyed PC reviewer noticed some striking similarities between Oblivion and a new game from a smaller PC studio titled “Limbo of the Lost.” Well, maybe not so much “striking similarities” as entire environments, lighting, and furniture placement in the exact same place as in Oblivion.
When this was first pointed out to me, I wondered whether these were just temporary placeholders for a game as of yet unreleased. Given the fact that he is reviewing the game, and a quick scan of Amazon suggests that this is not the case. I have a feeling we’re about to see some legal action here, as, unlike the S.T.A.L.K.E.R/Doom 3 fiasco, it’s hard to imagine that these entire environments are part of a 3rd party package.
You know what they say… imitation is the sincerest form of… ah, never mind. This is ridiculous. Sample pictures after the jump:
June 11th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Refresh my memory…what happened with stalker and doom?
June 11th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Dave-
My bad… I meant to link to it in the story above. I’ve added it back in (click on “fiasco”).
In any case, that was actually not a case of plagiarism, but instead the companies involved used the same 3rd party assets in their games. Actually, now that I remember, we actually posted a story about it too:
http://alinktothefuture.com/2007/04/16/gamings-dirty-little-secret/
June 11th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Ah, not much… there were some people who noticed that a sound file had a name similar to one in doom 3 and it turned out to be the same sound (or very slightly modified).
It turned out that the sound (and probably by extension various others) was from a third party pack - one that is freely available for purchase like all those sound effects you hear in movies and TV series over and over again… e.g. the Doom door closing or the very famous scream (can’t remember the name).
June 11th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Hehe, took too long to peruse the pictures linked in the article. Obviously my jaw dropped more than i thought
June 11th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
The blurb promised pictures….
June 11th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Rob-
You don’t see them? They show up for me…
June 11th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
They’re not showing up for me, no. I grabbed the URL from the page source, and it took foreeeeever to load even the front page of the domain. Not sure what’s up with that.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I don’t see them either. Weird. You’re not on the computer hosting the site when you check it, are you? That’s the only thing I can think of that might affect it.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Shows up every time for me… I’m using the pictures straight from the source.
Of course, I’m using Firefox. Are you using the (vastly inferior) IE? =)
June 11th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Nope, Firefox. Perhaps you have them cached or something.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Could be… I just checked on a new computer and they aren’t showing up… I’ll grab the originals and change the link so it’s locally hosted.
June 12th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Still not locally hosted and, thus, not showing up.
It’s considered rude to leech others’ bandwidth in this way, FYI.
June 12th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Leeching is when you link or show the pictures directly. The link was to the article… that’s not leeching - unless you guys think that the pictures were originally in THIS article?
June 12th, 2008 at 6:46 am
Ah, ignore me. I’m an idiot
I don’t remember seeing those pictures above when i commented originally though…
June 12th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Alright, alright! I forgot to rehost them last night… I’ve gone ahead and done just that today. Can everyone see them now? =)
June 12th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Yes, thanks.
Wow, right down to the designs on the windows and the tapestry. That’s what really sold me on infringement and not coincidence.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
“Wow, right down to the designs on the windows and the tapestry. That’s what really sold me on infringement and not coincidence.”
And architecture, and books, and furniture, and door design and placement. And if you follow the link through to their site, there are more screenshots of different locations that they compare. The publisher has apparently pulled the game now after seeing this.