Majestic Studios has found itself in hot water over its newest title, Limbo of the Lost, which appears to have lifted several assets of other games.

Earlier this week, Gameplasma.com threw up a rather surprising post on its Web site with screenshots displaying uncanny similarities between Bethesda Softwork's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Majestic Studios' just-released point-and-click adventure game Limbo of the Lost. According to the site, one of its staff writers, reviewing the latter product, recognized many areas seen in Bethesda's award-winning RPG.

"At first glance, this game appears to be your typical point and click adventure again," quotes the Web site. "This time, however, something seemed oddly familiar to him. Eric, being the avid PC gamer that he is, noticed that there were some similarities between Limbo of the Lost and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion."

The text is quickly followed by ten screenshots and a few descriptive captions, displaying the areas in question. Looking at the images, one can clearly see the identical stages, from rug and furniture placements to floor panels. The only real difference between the compared scenarios is the overall lighting and texture detail; otherwise, one would think they were looking at screens of varied resolutions from the same game.

But on the other hand, skeptical viewers may wonder if this entire post is a hoax, or extreme stupidity on behalf of Majestic Studios. Wanting a comment, we contacted Bethesda's Pete Hines on the matter. "We don't have any comment on it at this time," he told Tom's Games in an e-mail response.

Meanwhile, the game's publisher Tri Synergy released an official statement regarding the comparisons: "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."

According to the company, other complaints have rolled in, claiming the adventure game ripped assets from other popular titles including Diablo 2, Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004, Morrowind, Black & White 2, Thief: Deadly Shadows and more. If this were actually case, one must question Tri Synergy's quality control methods, and how something such as this slipped under the radar.

"Between the three of us we researched, wrote, designed, animated, scripted and developed the whole game from home" said Majestic Studios' Laurence Francis in an interview with Kent Messenger. Apparently, Francis, Steve Bovis and Tim Croucher started discussing the game back in the late 90s, originally conceiving the game for Amiga computers. The idea fizzled out for a while, but after three years of work, Tri Synergy picked up the publishing rights. Now with the game's release, the trio hoped that their story would inspire other promising PC game designers to press on. "For us it started out as a hobby and then just grew," Francis told Messenger. "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."

If the Majestic team indeed lifted elements from others games, then it's likely that both Majestic and Tri Synergy will be facing some big lawsuits. In the meantime, you can check out the screenshot comparison at Gameplasma.com and make your own judgments.

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