00:07Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're looking at memorable moments where video games were
00:11proven to have stolen from others, sometimes even in the court of law.
00:15Now come close to me lad, and let me get a good look at you.
00:19Well, what do you think? Shall I?
00:22But before we dive in, we publish new content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and
00:27ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
00:31Light of Motiram
00:42In July of 2025, Sony sued Tencent for copyright infringement after the Chinese conglomerate
00:49revealed its game, Light of Motiram. Everyone could tell it was a Horizon clone, but it went
00:54a lot deeper than that. Apparently, Tencent had approached Sony to develop a spin-off.
00:59Even though Sony said no, that didn't stop them.
01:02We are with you always, as long as the world shall live.
01:12Tencent argued that it wasn't stealing, just using similar ideas, enemy models, character designs,
01:18and well, basically everything. In December of the same year, the two companies settled out of court.
01:23Although the details of the settlement remain confidential, Light of Motiram was removed
01:28from Steam and the Epic Game Store, leaving all of us to wonder if it was cancelled, or is being
01:33reworked behind the scenes so as not to get sued again.
01:45Westworld
01:53Long before the show was cancelled and removed from streaming, HBO's Westworld received a similarly
01:58ill-fated mobile tie-in. Not long after its release, Bethesda took Warner Bros. to court,
02:04claiming that it used copyrighted code from Fallout Shelter. This was a pretty open and shut case.
02:10Behavior Interactive, developer of the Westworld mobile game, had also co-developed Fallout Shelter.
02:16And, somewhat comedically, the thing that tipped Bethesda off was an exact bug that appeared in both games.
02:28The case was resolved later that year, and Westworld was removed from the iOS and Google Play stores.
02:34Although Behavior Interactive claimed the timing was purely coincidental, that was probably for the best.
02:472Human
02:56Okay, technically 2Human didn't steal from a specific game, but since it's still one of the most famous
03:02cases of infringement in video games, we felt we had to include it.
03:06In 2007, developer Silicon Knights sued Epic Games, alleging that the company had failed to provide
03:12a suitable Unreal Engine 3, and that had cost them a lot of money.
03:16Are you gifted only with looks? And not with a tongue? Or is it that this witch holds some spell
03:23over you?
03:24I am gifted with a great many things, wench.
03:27This blew up in the studio's face spectacularly when Epic countersued and won.
03:32Epic claimed the developer had infringed on its IP rights by including code from Unreal Engine 3 in
03:39Silicon Knights' own engine, not only with 2Human, but other games in development at the time,
03:45which it did not pay licensing fees for. Essentially, it stole Epic's code, tried to pass it off as its
03:51own,
03:52and suffered the consequences. The lengthy legal battle lasted until 2012, when Silicon Knights had to pay
03:58Epic millions of dollars, recall and destroy any unsold copies of 2Human, an event that eventually
04:04caused the studio to shut down.
04:06Will I defeat this beast? This Grendel?
04:11You must discover that for yourself.
04:25Originally released in Japan on PC in 1985, Xanadu is an RPG classic. But even it had a little legal
04:32trouble.
04:33Richard Garriott, creator of the Ultima series, had met with developer Nihon Falcom to discuss
04:38having his studio, Origin Systems, publish Xanadu in the US. Unfortunately, when he did,
04:44he noticed that some of the game's shops included artwork lifted straight from the manual of Ultima 3.
04:57Why Nihon Falcom chose to do this is a mystery, but it understandably rubbed Garriott the wrong way.
05:03So much so that Origin Systems sued Nihon Falcom, who settled out of court and were forced to change the
05:09artwork.
05:15Tower of Fantasy
05:24The developers of mobile action RPG Tower of Fantasy, Hota Studio, are apparently big fans of
05:30fellow developer MiHoYo, but it seems they tried to emulate them a little too much. Hota has been
05:36called out a few times for borrowing assets from Honkai Impact 3rd. They even had to publicly apologize
05:42when a video detailing an upcoming character, Meryl, included a sword called the Third Sacred Relic,
05:48which was exactly the same and was then changed.
05:54I don't have much time left, Zeke.
05:57Even weirder, some fans noticed that positive reviews on the Chinese App Store were nearly
06:02identical to those of MiHoYo's other game, Genshin Impact, just with a few key words changed.
06:07And this world will be reborn from ashes.
06:20Shrek has appeared in many games over the years, but we doubt many remember
06:27this edutainment title that appeared on the V Smile in 2006. However, one quick listen to its
06:33soundtrack makes it obvious that a lot of its music was stolen.
06:45In certain sections, you can clearly hear songs from Ocarina of Time, including themes for The Lost
06:51Woods and Kokiri Forest. They didn't just steal from Zelda. Music from Saga Frontier and Darkseed 2
06:58also appears. Hell, there's even a track that sounds suspiciously close to the underwater theme from
07:03Super Mario Bros. How a company was able to get away with this without being sued into oblivion is beyond
07:09us.
07:10What should Pinocchio say?
07:18The Great Gianna Sisters
07:27One of the most famous copy and paste jobs in video game history, The Great Gianna Sisters is clearly a
07:33knockoff of the first Super Mario Bros.
07:35One of the most famous characters in the world. While the German developer Time Warp was told by
07:38publisher Rainbow Arts to make it as legally distinct as possible, it was too close for Nintendo.
07:51Following the game's release in the studio's home country, it spread to the UK, which is when
07:56Nintendo got wise. It reportedly sent a very angry letter to Rainbow Arts telling them to remove it from
08:02distribution. And after settling out of court and paying an undisclosed sum, that's exactly what they did.
08:19Venator
08:27In 2023, Italian developer Siba Games released Venator, an online multiplayer tactical shooter. And it didn't take long for
08:36another much smaller U.S. developer, Drakelean Labs, to notice that some of the game's assets were lifted directly from
08:42its own game,
08:43Operation Harsh Doorstop.
08:53Drakelean's founder, Connor Hill, took to his own YouTube channel to bring light to the situation, and contacted Siba to
08:59get the situation rectified,
09:00justifiably threatening legal action. Siba's response wasn't exactly amenable. And what made the situation worse was that
09:08Operation Harsh Doorstop was free to play, and Siba charged $40 for Venator. And it issued DMCA threats to several
09:16YouTubers who covered the story.
09:18Drakelean Labs won in the end though, as Venator is no longer available on Steam or the Epic Games store.
09:23We'll see you next time.
09:32Myth of Empires
09:41Not long after developer Angela Game released Myth of Empires, a historical MMORPG, the game became the subject of a
09:48lawsuit.
09:49Studio Wildcard, the makers of Ark Survival Evolved, accused them of stealing its source code.
10:00Due to the accusations, Myth of Empires was removed from the Steam store. The legal dispute lasted for two years,
10:07until an agreement was finally reached.
10:09Although some details of the lawsuit remain confidential, the game was allowed to return for sale on two known conditions.
10:16Studio Wildcard's parent company, Snail Games, would help Angela in bringing their game back,
10:21while Angela would pay Snail ongoing royalties. At least both companies can profit from the game,
10:27and it's honestly the best that Angela Game could have hoped for.
10:38Limbo of the Lost
10:51It's likely there will never be as egregious a case of plagiarism in video games as Limbo of the Lost.
10:57It only took a few months after release for the accusations to come rolling in, as it wasn't just a
11:03single game that the developers stole from.
11:05Certain areas were identical to those in The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion and Thief Deadly Shadows.
11:17Some of its assets were taken from other RPGs, like Sea Dogs and World of Warcraft.
11:23Hell, even the cursor was found to have been stolen from the strategy game Black and White 2.
11:28It's a shame, because a story about a real-world ship captain navigating Limbo after he, along with all of
11:34his crew, mysteriously vanished, could have been interesting.
11:37But now, it's only remembered as a bunch of terrible ideas mixed with stolen good ones.
11:43My favorite!
11:51Do you know of any other games that stole from other creators?
11:54Let us know about them in the comments, and we will see you next time.
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