Bethesda sues Interplay over Fallout Online and original Fal

Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:10 pm

I did type that after seeing Evenstar's post, thought I'd assume Beth would want the earlier releases under their belt too if they hold the IP now?


Wrong assumption. Bethesda allowed them to keep selling the old games, as long as they didn't repackage them or do any NEW promotions on them without it being passed on by Bethesda. The only reason Bethesda did that was to keep (exactly what Interplay did) from happening.
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Heather Dawson
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 1:29 am

When Interplay went defunct they were out of print and there was no digital distribution. Of course there was still copies floating around but you couldn't walk into stores and find it on the shelf most places. Even online retailer stock was pretty limited. So yes, had Bethesda not saved Interplay from bankruptcy then those original games probably would have disappeared entirely.

Than I apologize, I guess I was so used to people mentioning that they'd picked up the Fallout bundle here that I assumed it remained in print.
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John N
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 7:29 pm

I'm fairly certain you are incorrect.

Interplay had a compilation out before Bethesda purchased the rights to make Fallout 3, 4, and 5. Bethesda's game certainly raised awareness of the original games, and it may have even extended their shelf life - but they have never been out of print.


Donner, they were liscensed to make three Fallout games, not Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 5. Don't want any misconstruing that into thinking there'll be Fallout 4 & 5 along with Fallout: New Vegas.
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Claire Lynham
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 3:55 am

And as for it being Beth's responsibilty to police errors.. it's not. Part of the contract stipulated that Interplay would monitor those things. This is why they wanted things submitted for approval most likely.


The point of my last post was to highlight the fact that this happens regardless. Even if Bethesda approved an Interplay release of Fallout 1 as a stand alone title in new packaging, that website would list it as Fallout - Bethesda, with links to Bethesda's site. If this legal stuff wasn't going on, and I contacted Interplay to tell them that their product is being linked to the Bethesda website, they'd probably contact newegg and have them change it. They'd want their product linked to more of their products, not somebody elses.

That website is a poor example of the confusion the title 'Trilogy' could cause. They're confused by the 'Fallout' in the title, not 'Trilogy'. Just as they're seemingly confused by the 'Crash' in the title of those Crash games. Where I'd associate Bioware with KotOR, and Obsidian with KotOR 2, they have LucasArts listed for both, while it's not wrong... it's not right either. Most websites have the Publisher and Developer listed. If newegg did it maybe it'd force them to actually have a look at who is making what before they throw up products with misinformation on their website. Uninformed consumers BEWARE THE NEWEGG! lol :goodjob:
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lolli
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 11:09 pm

Donner, they were liscensed to make three Fallout games, not Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 5. Don't want any misconstruing that into thinking there'll be Fallout 4 & 5 along with Fallout: New Vegas.

The original licensing agreement doesn't apply now that Bethesda has bought the IP off of them.

The July 2004 press release announcing this says they have the rights to developer Fallout 3 "with the option to develop and publish additional sequels." Depending on how narrowly they define sequel it may or may not have allowed for spin-offs like New Vegas. But again, the semantics don't really matter now since the contract is defunct.

Of course Bethesda hasn't announced a direct sequel to Fallout 3, we know nothing about the projects they are developing in-house.
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JD FROM HELL
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 7:16 pm

The original licensing agreement doesn't apply now that Bethesda has bought the IP off of them.

The July 2004 press release announcing this says they have the rights to developer Fallout 3 "with the option to develop and publish additional sequels." Depending on how narrowly they define sequel it may or may not have allowed for spin-offs like New Vegas. But again, the semantics don't really matter now since the contract is defunct.

Of course Bethesda hasn't announced a direct sequel to Fallout 3, we know nothing about the projects they are developing in-house.


Ah, I had no clue they bought the IP all together. I thought they only bought the licensing for 3 games.

On further thinking, I am an idiot, because of the topic title.
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Jerry Cox
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 10:01 pm

:)

In July of 2004 Bethesda got the rights to develop Fallout 3 and I believe two sequels. In April 2007 they purchased the IP outright, and then licensed the MMO rights to Interplay. Interplay had publicaly discussed a Fallout MMO a month or so before their original agreement with Bethesda in 2004, and they were still interested in doing this. Bethesda got the Fallout brand, setting, and materials pertaining to the previous games (finished and incomplete) such as the artwork, design documents, etc.. Interplay continued to be the publisher of the original games even though the content of these games was mostly owned by Bethesda.
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Lady Shocka
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 4:44 am

Is New Vegas still happening? That's the thing I'm personally interested in seeing.

Still though, it's too bad that the interplay thing seems to have in general gone sour.

MMO: I've never felt enthusiastic about a Fallout MMO anyway. Maybe if I played one I'd feel differently. *shrug*.

One cannot help but feel like the Fallout1/2 people should be happily able to sell the old versions of the games. However, it makes total sense to me that Bethesda wanted to keep an eye on what was being sent out regarding Fallout 1 and 2, since they were the ones to pick up Fallout 3 and run with it, and they are planning on building Fallout 4. It *does* concern them. I hope that somehow the existing differences can be worked out.

Someone mentioned having recently given Fallout 2 a try and not finding it to have much staying power with them. I can't make myself do Fallout 2 all the way through either, these days. We need to understand though that it's a different sort of game, really it is, released in a different time. 1997 and 1998. A first-time player of the original fallouts here in 2009 is not having the same experience. It doesn't feel the same when you step out of Fallout 3 and WOW and whatever other games you were doing like 20 minutes ago and step into Fallout 2. I find Fallout 2 to be horrible when compared this way. And that's coming from someone who's putting together a mod that throws a ton of Fallout 2 things back into Fallout 3 with the intention of improving it as I see it. Weird how that works, but it does.
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Noely Ulloa
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 4:32 am

Is New Vegas still happening? That's the thing I'm personally interested in seeing.


New Vegas is developed by Obsidian and this issue with Beth and Interplay doesn't have anything to do with it. So yes, it is still happening.
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Lyd
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:47 pm

Wrong assumption. Bethesda allowed them to keep selling the old games, as long as they didn't repackage them or do any NEW promotions on them without it being passed on by Bethesda. The only reason Bethesda did that was to keep (exactly what Interplay did) from happening.


That's fair enough, my concern was that Beth would slap it's name on the older Fallout boxes which could confuse consumers into thinking they made those games, which would be unfair on Interplay.

IMO just keep the old series in it's trilogy box, and whatever Beth makes from Fallout 3 onwards, keep it seperate.
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Toby Green
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 9:55 pm

New Vegas is developed by Obsidian and this issue with Beth and Interplay doesn't have anything to do with it. So yes, it is still happening.


Yes, New Vegas is still planned for release next year.
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Mariana
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:37 pm

....*silently squees with happiness* :P
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Hayley O'Gara
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:39 pm

That's fair enough, my concern was that Beth would slap it's name on the older Fallout boxes which could confuse consumers into thinking they made those games, which would be unfair on Interplay.

IMO just keep the old series in it's trilogy box, and whatever Beth makes from Fallout 3 onwards, keep it seperate.

Occasionally people mistaken a game's publisher for its developer, particularly when the developer is not well known (and if Interplay isn't in this category yet they're getting there). Over the years we've certainly seen it here when people credit games to Bethesda when they only published them. You can still see it today over in the WET forums.

However, anyone who really cares that much about who made the game will be able to figure it out pretty quickly. I also doubt that Bethesda's logo would appear during the start up unless the current collection publisher (which isn't Interplay) already does this.

As I mentioned earlier, no one credits 2K Games for Oblivion even though they helped with distribution and Bethesda would be filling a similar role for the Fallout collection if the publishing rights were passed to them. If this happens there will be a few people who are confused, but most people are going to figure the situation out pretty quickly, I really don't think you need to worry.
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Kara Payne
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 12:03 am

Interplay needs to drop the fallout gig and work on the many other series they have established over the years but that is my opinion so it dont matter


Hint to Interplay everyone wants A Earth Worm Jim Game
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Suzy Santana
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 7:14 pm

Occasionally people mistaken a game's publisher for its developer, particularly when the developer is not well known (and if Interplay isn't in this category yet they're getting there).

Interplay :facepalm:


I Cant Say Anything To That But Agree


Herve Caen will surely burn in hell for this :meh: and i hope all luck goes to inXile Entertainment :wub:
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Riky Carrasco
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:15 pm

It looks like Interplay has no choice but to stop making the Fallout MMO and selling the Fallout games. However, this does give them an opportunity to make a new post apocalyptic series that can be similar to Fallout (in a way that Fallout was a spiritual successor of the Wasteland series).
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Vahpie
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 2:50 pm

In all likelyhood, Interplay would focus more on games that sold well in the past, such as Earthworm Jim and Dark Alliance, rather than startup a new post-apocalypse game universe. If there's a level below rock-bottom, they're drilling past it at the moment. It makes more sense, financially, to work on titles that have proven to be successful in the past than take a gamble on a entirely new series. Once they manage to get in the green (if they don't go belly-up first) then they can work on new titles, if they wish.
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gandalf
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:22 pm

I'd imagine Interplay, if anything, will continue their focus on handheld and mobile platforms. Those aren't really suited to post-apoc RPGs imo. Earthworm Jim would translate pretty well though.
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T. tacks Rims
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:57 pm

Personally, Bethesda should just acquire all rights to ZFallout once and for all. Have them own Fallout 1 and 2, FOT, and FOPOS, thusly remove Interplay from the equation.
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Alexis Acevedo
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:36 pm

Personally, Bethesda should just acquire all rights to ZFallout once and for all. Have them own Fallout 1 and 2, FOT, and FOPOS, thusly remove Interplay from the equation.


that would be unfair to interplay besthesda has no credit to the first fallout games they should let interplay do what they want with the games they made and start working on fallout 4 :rofl:
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josh evans
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 5:04 am

Well to be fair, the current Interplay really has no credit to the original Fallout games either. :(
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ezra
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:26 pm

that would be unfair to interplay besthesda has no credit to the first fallout games they should let interplay do what they want with the games they made and start working on fallout 4 :rofl:

Out of curiosity, what credit does Gator get? They're the current distributor of the Fallout Collection. If Bethesda gets the rights to sell the old games they'll simply be in the position Gator is in now.
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cheryl wright
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 10:45 pm

that would be unfair to interplay besthesda has no credit to the first fallout games they should let interplay do what they want with the games they made and start working on fallout 4 :rofl:

If Bethesda paid for it, then its completely fair.

If I buy your car, should you still be allowed to drive it?
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Melly Angelic
 
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Post » Thu Aug 26, 2010 10:44 pm

Poor Interplay, you know they can't afford it.They made such great games.I love Fallout 1,2,and Tactics.They are pretty damn addictive.
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Damien Mulvenna
 
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Post » Fri Aug 27, 2010 12:09 am

Yeah poor Interplay, breaking the conditions of their own contract and the agreements they made when they sold the IP to Bethesda...such victims Interplay are of the harsh and cruel mega-corporation...:rolleyes: :facepalm:
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Sophh
 
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