Limbo of the Lost Stole Oblivion Art Assets?

I put a question mark at the end of the post title because, honestly...I think that the title here really brings up an interesting question that we don't yet have the full story on.  Did the makers of Limbo Lost really steal the assets?  Did they recreate them...or did they license assets from Bethesda?

Ok, ok...lemme say this bit upfront.  Bethesda has not responded to inquiries, so I am guessing that the makers of Limbo Lost did not contact Bethesda.  Bethesda's hesitation to comment is most likely because they are still not sure what to do (sue, just ask them to not sell the game or do nothing)

Well, how often is it that games assets are taken and reused in such a way.  I'm not here to steal GamePlasma.com's thunder, but here are the images they posted.  Take a look before I continue.

Limbo Lost

Oblivion

Ok, so now you can see what exactly they mean by stolen assets.  It's not hard to see that these amateur doods kinda took the design of the assets and used them for their own means.  So is this ok or should Bethesda sue them?  First off, there is really no money in Bethesda suing the makers of Limbo of the Lost.  Then again, it really is the principle of the thing.

Doing a bit more research, "these guys" basically consist of three pub friends who "had a dream."  They kicked around the idea for 10 years and then finally just put their minds to it and made this game.  Read more about the making of Limbo of the Lost.

I am curious in general about the reuse of game assets.  I would personally have no problem with someone using my game's assets for something as long as a) they are not making money off of my work b) asking permission if they were using them in something available from a formalized project with investors and an official company (even if it is still a for free thing).  I wouldn't care if two kids in their basement made some cool art project using my games assets, but if a company was using my work in any way other than for something internal, I would want to know.

Comments

[Henkie Britz]

They obviosly dont know how much work and time goes into games like oblivion. Getting that textures to look realistic and al those 3D modeling... I wonder if they feel any guilt at all, for stealing a dozen game's textures and actualy selling the game. Makes me sad ._.