UK-developed game in plagiarism row

A video games studio based in Maidstone, Kent, has been accused of unlawfully copying content from other games.

Majestic Studios, which is run by Steve Bovis, Tim Croucher and Laurence Francis, sold adventure game Limbo of the Lost to US distributor Tri Synergy, which released the title in the territory.

However, games bloggers have pointed out ‘startling’ similarities between Limbo of the Lost and a range of established video games.

According to The Telegraph, Majestic claims it has been creating the title since the early 1990s.

"Between the three of us we researched, wrote, designed, animated, scripted and developed the whole game from home," Laurence Francis told his local paper the Kent Messenger in a recent interview.

The newspaper quotes Eric Franck, a writer for GamePlasma, who was among one of the first to spot the alleged similarities between Limbo of the Lost and other famous games.

He and compared a screenshot from the British game with one from another smash-hit game, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

Since then, hundreds of other have allegedly shown ‘astonishing’ similarities between Limbo Of The Lost and other titles such as Unreal Tournament 2004, Crysis and BioShock.

Tri Synergyimmediately withdrew Limbo of the Lost from sale on learning of the complaints, and issued a statement expressing its "shock" at the news.

"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," said the statement.

"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."

Majestic Studios was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.