PC game steals art assets

Forum
General Chat

I found this rather interesting. A PC game titled "Limbo of the Lost" has been found out big time for stealing art assets from several big name games and movies. At the time of writing, so far it has been discovered that the game blatantly ripped off material from: The Elder Scrolls III and IV, UT2k3 and 2k4, Diablo II, RTCW, WOW, Silent Hill III, Painkiller, Crysis and movies Spawn and Pirates of the Caribbean.

The developer, Majestic Studios apparently consists of only 3 people and the game interestingly has been in development for 10 years.

The original article linking the game to The Elder Scrolls IV:Oblivion from GamePlasma can be found here: http://www.gameplasma.com/limbo_of_the_lost_or_oblivion/

Further discussion of comparisons to other games here:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310683

Submitted by Kezza on Fri, 13/06/08 - 3:17 PMPermalink

Yeah, heard about this at work. They must have realized how many cases of copyright infringement they were publishing by taking assets from other games and trying to publish a game using them.

... I'm just astounded the publisher actually put it out the door to be honest.

Submitted by threedninja on Fri, 13/06/08 - 4:00 PMPermalink

Did they think people wouldn't realise what they have done? It looks like a clear rip-off poly for poly. Didn't even try to move any of the props either.

(to quote Grandpa Simpson), For shame!

Submitted by souri on Fri, 13/06/08 - 4:21 PMPermalink

There've been claims before of developers using assets from other games, and I think the Ukrainian devs who did STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl were accused of that in recent times (some of the assets in Stalker were identical to stuff in id software and Valve games), but I think it turned out that they used the same commercial texture packs that any developer can license.

But this is in a whole different level. Did any of those three guys honestly think they'd get away with lifting entire scenes from other games? Honestly, they have to be the biggest morons in the industry!

Submitted by bozza on Fri, 13/06/08 - 4:22 PMPermalink

Yeah i read about this on Kotaku, the stupidity of some people amazes me, im not sure how they didnt expect anyone to make the connections when they take them from such successful games/movies.

Submitted by souri on Fri, 13/06/08 - 4:35 PMPermalink

You'd think a developer that'd do this is from some far off non-western country.. but these guys heralded from the motherland! They definitely knew better.

"Majestic Studios is composed of three long time pub friends--Steve Bovis, Tim Croucher, and Laurence Francis--in Maidstone, England. The actual idea for Lost of the Limbo originated roughly 10 years ago, nearly eight years before Oblivion released, when the friends decided to turn their loved hobby into a serious endeavor. The group spent three years making the game at home."

http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/881/881435p1.html

The pub usually is a great place for coming up with ideas too :[

Submitted by compactjerry on Sat, 14/06/08 - 2:51 PMPermalink

Yeah it is pretty amazing that this even got published. Hats off to the publisher for showing faith in an indie dev team, but I mean seriously now, their website is hosted on geocities lol!

The sad thing is though this is just going to make it harder for small dev teams to get their work published.

Submitted by souri on Wed, 18/06/08 - 11:27 PMPermalink

"Our hope, if everything goes well with the sales, is that within a year we will all be stopping the day jobs and doing this full time."

Unfortunately, I don't think that's about to happen...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 19/06/08 - 1:04 AMPermalink

People on other forums keep going on about the publisher. Seriously, what publisher is going to recognise portions of different games? Not many I would think.

I also read that they just basically took screenshots of the games and used a scaling 3d object for their characters. That's why they're so precise...

Submitted by souri on Tue, 24/06/08 - 10:43 PMPermalink

Please be assured that we do not condone in anyway the use of unauthorised copyrighted materials and if we had been made aware earlier, we would of course have ceased development of the product and rectified the issue prior to the publication process.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/06/limbo_of_the_lost_devs_protest_i…

Unfortunately for them, here's an interview where the Creative Director said he created all the visuals.. oh, he handled the coding, sounds, models, and marketing as well.

http://www.justadventure.com/Interviews/Limbo/SteveBovis.shtm

Forum
General Chat

I found this rather interesting. A PC game titled "Limbo of the Lost" has been found out big time for stealing art assets from several big name games and movies. At the time of writing, so far it has been discovered that the game blatantly ripped off material from: The Elder Scrolls III and IV, UT2k3 and 2k4, Diablo II, RTCW, WOW, Silent Hill III, Painkiller, Crysis and movies Spawn and Pirates of the Caribbean.

The developer, Majestic Studios apparently consists of only 3 people and the game interestingly has been in development for 10 years.

The original article linking the game to The Elder Scrolls IV:Oblivion from GamePlasma can be found here: http://www.gameplasma.com/limbo_of_the_lost_or_oblivion/

Further discussion of comparisons to other games here:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310683

Submitted by Kezza on Fri, 13/06/08 - 3:17 PMPermalink

Yeah, heard about this at work. They must have realized how many cases of copyright infringement they were publishing by taking assets from other games and trying to publish a game using them.

... I'm just astounded the publisher actually put it out the door to be honest.

Submitted by threedninja on Fri, 13/06/08 - 4:00 PMPermalink

Did they think people wouldn't realise what they have done? It looks like a clear rip-off poly for poly. Didn't even try to move any of the props either.

(to quote Grandpa Simpson), For shame!

Submitted by souri on Fri, 13/06/08 - 4:21 PMPermalink

There've been claims before of developers using assets from other games, and I think the Ukrainian devs who did STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl were accused of that in recent times (some of the assets in Stalker were identical to stuff in id software and Valve games), but I think it turned out that they used the same commercial texture packs that any developer can license.

But this is in a whole different level. Did any of those three guys honestly think they'd get away with lifting entire scenes from other games? Honestly, they have to be the biggest morons in the industry!

Submitted by bozza on Fri, 13/06/08 - 4:22 PMPermalink

Yeah i read about this on Kotaku, the stupidity of some people amazes me, im not sure how they didnt expect anyone to make the connections when they take them from such successful games/movies.

Submitted by souri on Fri, 13/06/08 - 4:35 PMPermalink

You'd think a developer that'd do this is from some far off non-western country.. but these guys heralded from the motherland! They definitely knew better.

"Majestic Studios is composed of three long time pub friends--Steve Bovis, Tim Croucher, and Laurence Francis--in Maidstone, England. The actual idea for Lost of the Limbo originated roughly 10 years ago, nearly eight years before Oblivion released, when the friends decided to turn their loved hobby into a serious endeavor. The group spent three years making the game at home."

http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/881/881435p1.html

The pub usually is a great place for coming up with ideas too :[

Submitted by compactjerry on Sat, 14/06/08 - 2:51 PMPermalink

Yeah it is pretty amazing that this even got published. Hats off to the publisher for showing faith in an indie dev team, but I mean seriously now, their website is hosted on geocities lol!

The sad thing is though this is just going to make it harder for small dev teams to get their work published.

Submitted by souri on Wed, 18/06/08 - 11:27 PMPermalink

"Our hope, if everything goes well with the sales, is that within a year we will all be stopping the day jobs and doing this full time."

Unfortunately, I don't think that's about to happen...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 19/06/08 - 1:04 AMPermalink

People on other forums keep going on about the publisher. Seriously, what publisher is going to recognise portions of different games? Not many I would think.

I also read that they just basically took screenshots of the games and used a scaling 3d object for their characters. That's why they're so precise...

Submitted by souri on Tue, 24/06/08 - 10:43 PMPermalink

Please be assured that we do not condone in anyway the use of unauthorised copyrighted materials and if we had been made aware earlier, we would of course have ceased development of the product and rectified the issue prior to the publication process.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/06/limbo_of_the_lost_devs_protest_i…

Unfortunately for them, here's an interview where the Creative Director said he created all the visuals.. oh, he handled the coding, sounds, models, and marketing as well.

http://www.justadventure.com/Interviews/Limbo/SteveBovis.shtm