Yoink! Adventure game reuses Oblivion's graphics

by Justin McElroy { Jun 11th 2008 at 9:30AM }

When you play a lot of video games as we do, they can tend to feel a little same-y after a while. But Majestic Studios may just have just pushed past Homageville and straight into Lawsuitburg with Limbo of the Lost, which appears to have lifted many of its background graphics directly from Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. No, it's not in a "Hey, this game looks like Oblivion" way. It's more like "Hey, why are you seizing my copy of the game as evidence?" GamePlasma has the image above and many, many more examples.

What's nuttier is that this game has actually been around for a while. It was originally released in Asia way back in November of 2007, though it's just now getting a North American release. It's criminal, but it's also kind of inspiring. Apparently, if you dream of making games, all you have to do is find another game, and then make up a guy to put in that game and then sell it. If we weren't so busy liquidating our stock in Majestic Studios we'd be slow clapping.

(Oh, and just so you know, Bethesda tells us they don't have a comment and Majestic's email address doesn't work..)

Update: No one is safe from Limbo! It seems the game also stole an environment from Eidos' Thief: Deadly Shadows.

Update 2: Just heard back from U.S. publisher Tri Synergy who tells us that the similarity between the two is "striking" but "We're just as shocked as anybody else and we've put a line in to Majestic. We had no idea that any of this had been in the game and things would have been different had we known." They're still exploring it though, so we hope we'll hear more soon.

[Thanks Michael]

Tags: bethesda, elder-scrolls, limbo-of-the-lost, oblivion

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Imadogg @ Jun 11th 2008 9:38AM

hahahhaa

awesome

Turkish Superman @ Jun 11th 2008 1:52PM

How is stealing someone else's work and trying to profit from it awesome?

mike_p @ Jun 11th 2008 5:25PM

Don't be so serious. I'm sure he doesn't mean it's literally AWESOME.

It ain't ... but seriously, how could they have pulled this off for this long without getting some kind of [negative] attention.

venk @ Jun 11th 2008 9:42AM

hahahahhaha...thats awesome!

copa @ Jun 11th 2008 9:47AM

hahahaha

so awesome!

Deric Lee @ Jun 11th 2008 9:57AM

So this american publisher sounds pretty dumb, they are going to get the brunt of the law suite.

Almost seems they got...scammed?

Justin McElroy @ Jun 11th 2008 9:57AM

Yeah, I'm betting that's what happened Deric.

JonFitt @ Jun 11th 2008 10:59AM

Does the law suite have a jacuzzi, and ocean views? If so, I'll take the brunt.

Pureshooter @ Jun 11th 2008 12:28PM

Don't be silly. He's clearly referring to some sort of legal themed musical composition. Perhaps the opening to Law & Order?

Intentless @ Jun 11th 2008 9:58AM

So they reused the graphical content or did they do as the post insinuates and literaly just replace the main character and throw him into oblivion?

Obie @ Jun 11th 2008 9:59AM

Wow, how the hell did they think they would get away with this?

HOBBER @ Jun 11th 2008 10:02AM

Maybe Bethesda let them...maybe

NATO_Duke @ Jun 11th 2008 10:04AM

Just wow.

Brent @ Jun 11th 2008 10:05AM

Maybe this game was in production first and Bethesda stole from them!

Pandar @ Jun 11th 2008 10:07AM

That seems the most plausible reason LOL!!!

playwhutyalike @ Jun 11th 2008 10:10AM

Now THAT's a lazy ass developer.

Anonymous @ Jun 11th 2008 10:11AM

Imitation is the sincerest form of intellectual theft.

Ghostbuddy @ Jun 11th 2008 10:24AM

This is by far the most pathetic thing I have EVER seen on this site.

This game is basically, a terrible player mod for Oblivion. Only they actually sold the game in Japan, and are trying to sell it here.

Make an example of them. Don't let other developers think they can get away with this. Sue them into oblivion.

ApolloIV @ Jun 11th 2008 11:27AM

I see what you did there.

theberlindoctor @ Jun 11th 2008 10:25AM

This a big problem in all aspects of the industry, but especially Indie developers. I work with a small indie developer who got some notoriety for a free game we made a while back, Strange Attractors. We've been working on the sequel for over a year now, a commercial product we're shopping to various digital distribution avenues.

We found out a number of them were also looking at another game that had such a striking resemblance, both graphically and gameplay wise to our own. So much so, I consider it very nearly a direct ripoff.

Copycatting, stealing ideas and assets is much more prevalent than you think and its very disheartening to think someone can just steal your ideas and style and then shop it in the same market as you are trying to compete, especially if your a weekend indie developer and not EA or Bethesda.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ Jun 11th 2008 10:43AM

Ideas are intangible and the IDEA that you're the only one who can reach this conclusion is a common misconception. I don't support the direct ripping off of a game design however if two people create an open world game with super heroes, I don't consider it a ripoff of each other.

Assets, however, are a different story and the main reason why I pulled several of my free "learning aide" assets off of Turbosquid. Mainly I saw this item...

http://sheppyboy2000.deviantart.com/art/Mobile-Artillery-Unit-Crableg-39984064

Show up in a Korean MMO RTS colored red and renamed a Stabber Starkiller. They of course removed the item from the Beta once I alerted them. But to this day, another company sells this piece of my artwork...

http://sheppyboy2000.deviantart.com/art/Light-It-Up-17525642

... on Pencil Boards. That I don't mind so much since I really can't do anything. After all, I was dicking around with someone else's registered trademarks.

theberlindoctor @ Jun 11th 2008 10:57AM

"Ideas are intangible and the IDEA that you're the only one who can reach this conclusion is a common misconception."

This has nothing to do with what I stated. There is no misconception when another company creates a game that is nearly identical to yours with minor tweaks. Legal? Maybe. Deplorable? Absolutely.