Limbo of the Lost Copies Oblivion?

dafloppyone

dafloppyone

dafloppyone

Associate
Joined
15 Jun 2006
Posts
2,178
Location
Amsterdam
GamePlasma reports that Limbo of the Lost, the upcoming adventure game developed by Majestic Studios, shares some similarities with oblivion the RPG developed by Bethesda Softworks:
Eric was recently assigned a game developed by Majestic Studios titled "Limbo of the Lost." At first glance, this game appears to be your typical point and click adventure again. This time, however, something seemed oddly familiar to him. Eric, being the avid PC gamer that he is, noticed that there were some similiarties between Limbo of the Lost and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

The first example of this can be seen in the screenshots from Oblivion and Limbo of the Lost below. Notice how everything is placed in exactly the same place and almost all of the textures are identical. In fact, the only real difference is the quality of the texture and overall graphical look. Even the portrait that can be seen under the stairs is exactly the same as the one that can be found in Oblivion. Also, take note of the placement of the rug in the middle of the floor and the placement of the stairways. These similarities lead to many questions. How rampant are situations like this in games that fall under the radar of the typical gaming crowd?

Bethesda, publisher of Oblivion, did not have a comment at the time of posting. Tri Synergy, publisher of Limbo of the Lost, also did not have any comments at this time. I can assure you, however, that GamePlasma will stay on top of this and notify you as details are released.​
 Publisher Tri Synergy now issued a statement:
Tri Synergy is just as shocked as everyone else is by the recent screenshot comparisons. At no point during our dealings with Majestic Studios up until the point that the comparison was first publicly made by a third party did we have any knowledge of these similarities. Additionally, Tri Synergy will discontinue distribution of Limbo of the Lost in both retail and online outlets. We have contacted the developer, Majestic, and are anxiously awaiting their response. As soon as we know more on this matter we will issue another statement.


obljt6.jpg

limbobv8.jpg

​
 
Rofl, a quote taken from the developer in this interview: http://www.quandaryland.com/jsp/dispArticle.jsp?index=795

Gordon: So have any more recent games influenced your current project?

Steve: The project is more influenced by film and literature rather than other games, we want the experience to be as original as possible and as such we have made a calculated effort to keep away from other games in the genre. Limbo of the Lost is an experience first and foremost, secondly wrapped up in a game media and genre.
Click to expand...
 
yes, they are identical, of that there really isn't a question. However, the last time this happened it turned out the company had purchased the rights to all the textures and was completely fine in doing so.

Its perfectly possible, and infact likely that companies will just lend out half their stuff from older games(oblivion isn't exactly new is it) to a company that allows purchase of bulk level design/model/texture design packages so they can make even more money off the work done. Or the designers may have rights to stuff they've designed for previous games, and be working at a new company.

THat or they just ripped it all off, at the end of the day, do we care, who buys all these truly awful budget games in the first place. I guess games companies have to start somewhere.
 
drunkenmaster said:
yes, they are identical, of that there really isn't a question. However, the last time this happened it turned out the company had purchased the rights to all the textures and was completely fine in doing so.

Its perfectly possible, and infact likely that companies will just lend out half their stuff from older games(oblivion isn't exactly new is it) to a company that allows purchase of bulk level design/model/texture design packages so they can make even more money off the work done. Or the designers may have rights to stuff they've designed for previous games, and be working at a new company.

THat or they just ripped it all off, at the end of the day, do we care, who buys all these truly awful budget games in the first place. I guess games companies have to start somewhere.
Click to expand...

What you're talking about there was STALKER and Half Life 2... but it was shown that niether game developer made the texture and they were bought from a studio dedicated to making such things. Very different from ripping entire scenes out of games no? also, These developers certainly did not work for any games developers that made any of the games they have taken scenes from in this utter garbage... unless they were the cleaners who thought games development looked fun and had a bash. And start somewhere? being spooned in prison isn't where I would want to start off on my road to being the next John Carmack.
 
Last edited:
drunkenmaster said:
yes, they are identical, of that there really isn't a question. However, the last time this happened it turned out the company had purchased the rights to all the textures and was completely fine in doing so.

Its perfectly possible, and infact likely that companies will just lend out half their stuff from older games(oblivion isn't exactly new is it) to a company that allows purchase of bulk level design/model/texture design packages so they can make even more money off the work done. Or the designers may have rights to stuff they've designed for previous games, and be working at a new company.

THat or they just ripped it all off, at the end of the day, do we care, who buys all these truly awful budget games in the first place. I guess games companies have to start somewhere.
Click to expand...

Doesn't apply in this case. They've literally just loaded all the games they had and taken screen dumps out of them. Even their game character is the stock one out of some 3d animation programme and their trailer rips off Crysis and Pirates, to name but a few.

ftp://ftp.trisynergy.com/pub/LimboOfTheLost/LotL-Trailer.zip
 
Spektor said:
What you're talking about there was STALKER and Half Life 2... but it was shown that niether game developer made the texture and they were bought from a studio dedicated to making such things. Very different from ripping entire scenes out of games no? also, These developers certainly did not work for any games developers that made any of the games they have taken scenes from in this utter garbage... unless they were the cleaners who thought games development looked fun and had a bash. And start somewhere? being spooned in prison isn't where I would want to start off on my road to being the next John Carmack.
Click to expand...

Don't know why you're seeming so aggressive about it. How do you know none of the team worked on any of the other games, because of the quality difference? a game a team of 50 can make and a game a team of 4 could make would be insanely different in terms of depth, quality and everything else, even if all those 54 different people had identical coding skills. Its fairly common for people to do well on one game and split off with a smaller team to start another game, infact thats common in any business. As for the HL2 and stalker situation, who says thats different. Firstly, the exact same thing could have happened, oblivion bought some texture packs and room/map designs from a company which then sold to this group too. Also, there still isn't any reason anyone with the rights to the Oblivion stuff couldn't have sold licence to use it. AT the end of the day, if almost everyone whose bought Oblivion now has done, and they can get another £10k for letting a company use some textures and map design, what does it matter to them. Even if loads more sales were expected, game of the year level Oblivion 3d RPG, vs 2d point and click, hardly competing in the same market but again, just another bit of cash they can rake in.

I'm not saying they are innocent, however I can think of a dozen reasons they might be so I'll see what they have to say. I mean, think about it this way, a bunch of competant enough game coders to be able to put together a working 2d point and click game which clearly isn't just oblivion in 2d, but a new game with possibly stolen textures/designs, they can't move around some basic objects to hide the fact they've taken them directly, move a pot on one shelf, move a painting to somewhere else on the wall, change the painting. Maybe they are that stupid and I'm giving them too much credit, maybe they didn't change anything because they had the rights to use the images.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom