It has been announced that Bethesda Softworks moved to rescind the Fallout MMORPG license. Interplay received notice from Bethesda that it intends to terminate the trademark license agreement, claiming that Interplay is in breach of the agreement for failure to commence full scale development by April 4, 2009 and to secure certain funding for the game. Interplay disputes these claims.

See:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Project_V13_FAQ

Yeah I was about to post a link to this story on Eurogamer.

Can't say i'm surprised interplay left everything to the 11th hour and farmed it out to masthead. Anyway I don't really care for MMO's but if the story i read on eurogamer about Beth suing Interplay is true, it's kinda kicking a man when he's down, interplay is dying a slow death anyway.

Interplay died years ago. The corpse has just taken a while to cool.

And I say this as someone who played and still loves their Star Trek games (both the point-and-click adventures and the Starfleet Command series), Battle Chess, Descent, FreeSpace... it's very sad, but not surprising.

Here's the Eurogamer link:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/bethesda-may-sue-over-fallout-mmo

Not much information here. If you follow the SEC filing link...which is for IPLAY. Note that in my fast reading of this, I ddid not see any indication of the agreement with Masthead, which may have occurred after this filing.

At this point, there is nothing new here. It's going to resolve down to how much funding Masthead brings to the table.

The filing does mention the Masthead agreement.

I hope Bethesda gets the rights, Im not an MMO guy but I would play a Fallout version, and I would want it in the hands of a company that will be around for awhile. After all its not like a normal game were you still have the game wether the company tanks or not.

I'd prefer it to be done by the original makers of Fallout (like Chris Taylor, currently at Interplay) or not at all.

It's unlikely that beth would make an MMO themselves, it would most likely be given to Zenimax Online Studios who specialise in MMO's.

I disagree. I hope Beth or company's in the same bloodline do not get their hands on it(my guess is that it will end up with Zenimax). Why? Simply because of what they already have showed with their cheap Fallout spin-off.
Besides Interplay does deliver pretty nice when they do it, and they got people who understands game mecanics in contrast to Beth.

Ah, gotta love the smarmy hands.

That'd be the only way I'd investigate the trial period ~else.... nada.

*Besides that I do [dare I say] detest MMO's of any description (free or otherwise).

This was predictable.

Bethesda wanted it to go down this way from the very beginning, that's why they made sure the agreement tilted so heavily in their favor.

I can't say I'm unhappy about this, Chris Taylor or no Chris Taylor, I don't trust Herve Caen's Interplay at all.

Look at it this way, as long as Bethesda has the MMO development rights, chances are it won't get made which is a huge plus for me (yes yes, there's Zenimax Online but they're clearly focused elsewhere).



Why does everyone assume Masthead is funding anything? That wasn't in the press release from Interplay and it makes no sense anyway since Masthead is itself a struggling independent development studio in Bulgaria. I seriously doubt they had $30 million to throw at Interplay's project, let alone their own MMO in development. What's more likely is Interplay enlisted Masthead as a third party developer, which according to the original agreement requires Bethesda's direct approval. Nothing about Masthead bringing the $30 million which is why Interplay is in breach of contract.

Of course they're "adamantly" denying it, because Herve Caen is a moron who causes everything he touches to to turn to crap. He's the anti-Midas.

.... Interplay was turned into a Ghoul ...! ^_^

Agreed. I did my morning for InterCorpse a long time ago... This time it looks like they're really dead:



If this is the case... I don't even think a "Fallout-Inspired MMO" like what happened with the PnP game is even possible now.... I see bouncing paychecks in the immediate future.

Based on agent_c's post above, my Inner Conspiracy Theorist is now thinking: "I wonder if the deal with MastHEad was meant to be a case of SELL OR RENT THE FALLOUT MMO LICENSE TO RAISE CASH ...?"

Seriously: Masthead is already working on a post-apocalyptic MMO. Having a ready-made IP, with built-in fanbase, would be a benefit to them, don't you think? One they might have been willing to pay for? And certainly, it seems Interplay was (again) desperate for cash ...!!

Sorry friend but the game is far from mediocre. I suppose that Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 were so perfect that they launched Black Isle to the top of the industry and Interplay made sequels that were perfect *cough* FO:BoS *cough*

I think we need to move away from this area of discussion. I do see how a comparison between the earlier games/Interplay and FO3/Bethesda applies to this topic. However there are many passionate opinions about this particular comparison, and I'd rather not see this thread dragged off topic.


Yeah, ZOS has been up to something lately, and it seems unlikely that they were developing a Fallout MMO on the chance that Interplay wouldn't meet their end of the licensing agreement.

Good points about Masthead as well.

Heh, that's like saying George Best was crap as he ended up as a wreck.

I shall leave it be then



I dont get the reference

Fallout as an MMO is not the best idea IMO, then again I am not up to date on MMO's in general so maybe it will work,

Maybe Bethesda will take over the license and then contract Masthead to develop it anyways, but on Beth's terms?

Personally I don't have any prference to which of them makes it, Interplay gave us Fallout, and Bethesda returned it to us.. so both are thought of fondly in my eyes.

Without Bethesda a third Fallout would likely have never happened, some may say that would probably have been for the best, but I think the vast majority of us were very happy qwith how FO3 turned out.

For myself, if Bethesda were to get the rights back to a Fallout MMO then I'd be very happy if they gave us a world to play in the quality of FO3, especially if it explored new areas of the Fallout World outside of the U.S AND allowed us to play things other than vault dwellers (tribals, ghouls, Super mutants, androids/robots whatever)... It would make me very happy indeed.

I just hope, which ever way this thing ends up, Bethesda doesn't defile their hands on an MMOcrap (especially a Falloutone at that). They've been able to create quite enjoyable single player experienses and thats where they sould stay and improve upon, imo.

Untrue. Someone else would simply make it. Bethesda wasn't the only company bidding for the license, they were simply the highest bidder.

Reading through the 10-K now... Balance sheet doesnt look good, worse than I thought... They aint kidding about this no cash thing... They're 24 thousand overdrawn on their accounts... They have less than 200k in Assets, and almost 2.5 million in current liabilties (admittedly thats down on almost 3.5 million last year, but they had over a million in assets - specifically cash - last year).

Interplay's only chance, I think, is to sell another license.... Unless anyone wants to loan them another million or two for another year?

George Best was a fantastic football player who gained much recognition in Britain in playing for Manchester United however he had many demons including alcoholism which resulted in his demise at the age of just 59 and its fair to say the drink ruined the best part of his life through illness and emotional factors.

But he was a prodigious player in the 1960's.

Anyway I think this is quite sad. I understand that a contract is a contract and all but it just seems (to me) wrong that you do this to the people who created the franchise Bethesda is now making a pretty penny from. Still there is no room for emotion in business I suppose but its most uncricket of Bethesda I think.

Forshame I hope some people start feeling guilty about doing this!