"2008 was a year suffering from a terrible case of the sequels. Most of them were really just going through the motions, stagnating their respective franchises rather than outright slaughtering them..." (shows picture of Fallout 3) -Yahtzee



No, but as bad as it sounds, it may have helped for political reasons. People would have probably been more forgiving if so and so were involved.

And even if the entire project doesn't shift, having an original dev work on a couple of quests or something would have really been a great nod to the classics.

Same. I always was dreaming of Fallout Online being like our return to The Wasteland, as it was envisioned 12 years ago. Bethesda's approach to the Fallout series is alright, but I wanted some closure with the good folks at Interplay and Black Isle. I guess we won't get it.

why does none of this surprise me?

It was professional pride on being one of the few companies from among their peers of that era who are still in business.


Bethesda have never made any secret of their recruitment process:

For every vacancy, there are 100 people with the relevant skill, experience and talent to do that job, and only one who they actually want to work with. The first consideration is that they have to be "nice" and "humble" - there is no place for egos and attitudes and they will reject instantly anyone with a whiff of either, knowing full well that there is someone equally capable who can play well with others. Of course, there is no reason to suspect that the Interplay guys are other than nice and humble, so that gets them past the first two hurdles (the other being experience and capability). Then there's the third hurdle: you have to be able to work as part of the team towards the strategic vision of the lead producers.

That's probably the bit that they would have had concerns about - I know that I would in their shoes. See, however much someone might want to just be on the team and say that the could realise someone else's dream, if I was Leonard Boyarski I'd find it pretty hard to make a Todd Howard-style Fallout 3 because all the time I'd be wanting to make a Leonard Boyarski Fallout 3. That's the one aspect Bethesda are most careful about during their recruitment process - they cannot afford to have conflicting creative visions. For example, I know that if I had the talent/experience (and geographical location), I could get a job at Bethesda because I already think the same way they do, both culturally and in terms of ideals of game experience ("live another life") - but I'd find it hard to work with any other developer because however much I didn't mean to, I'd be wanting to turn all their games into Bethesda-style games. I certainly couldn't work for Interplay because our cultures/ideas would be diametrically opposed. Leonard would have found working for Bethesda an immensely frustrating experience because most of his ideas would have been immediately rejected - as all devs' ideas are - but particularly the ones that were different to the very clear goal of what they wanted Fallout 3 to be. It's bad enough trying to watch someone else playing Fallout 3 and having to resist chipping in with, "No, you need to play it this way" all the time.

Ultimately, it was a lot kinder and fairer all round to give Interplay the option to develop their own game under the Fallout brand, over which they'd have full creative control. Naturally, as with any business, they would have had to attach strings to that agreement - all contracts have a "term" as well as other details and when that time is up, it's time to renegotiate. Not being party to those negotations, we can do little other than speculate.


Oh, the hypocrisy! Yahtzee gave a (for him) glowing review of Fallout 3 when it came out. :rolleyes:

Anyway, this topic is NOT about Yahtzee. This topic is about Fallout Online, or any similar MMORPG that is made by Interplay, and any news on that.

Has anyone heard anything more on this? Or are we just going to gibber on incoherently about what we wish would happen? Because I for one would appreciate some actual news on the issue.

Sorry, just responding to my friend being called a dip [censored], using the same medium.

When Princess Stomper mentioned that this wasn't a topic Yahtzee I'm pretty sure that was a request to get back on topic, particularly given that this thread has had a very difficult time staying on topic.

I also don't think PS was attacking Yahtzee. While he did include FO3 in his "terrible case of the sequels" line up, and panned it in his E3 preview, his actual review of the game was fairly positive. I don't think this is terribly surprising given Yahtzee's reviews, nor do I think he is being inconsistent. Yahtzee himself has said that people complain when his reviews are too positive (a reference to his psychonauts review if I remember correctly) and since then most of his 'positive' reviews have still focused on the negative.

I may be wrong, but I'm going to guess that Yahtzee is something of a persona, and Ben Croshaw doesn't go about every aspect of his life like he's in a Zero Punctuation episode. This is hardly new in the world of entertainment: does Teller of "Penn and" not talk outside of performances? So is anyone really surprised that a review built upon being entertaining and hyper-critical may lean a bit towards being entertaining and hyper-critical?


However as I started this post off with, a discussion of Yahtzee and Zero Punctuation is hardly on topic. If someone wants to start a thread in Community Discussion about this they are welcome to do so, but this thread needs to stay focused on V13 and Bethesda's apparent move to regain the Fallout MMO license.

Back on topic a bit...

As I understand it, the particulars of the Iplay/Masthead deal have not been disclosed. Seems to me the Beth move is normal legal business. That is, Beth is legally saying: "we want you, Iplay, to tell us how you are living up to your contractual agreements, and if we find that you are not living up to those agreements, we intend to revoke the license".

That's why I say this really isn't anything new....yet.

gamesas is simply making this move since Interplay is on breach of contract, I doubted Interplay could secure the founding stipulated (and so far we seen no indication they did) and the involvement of Masthead Studios is still far from the "full scale development" that was required by April 4.

That is the key factor, do you really believe that "full scale development" started the day after the announcement? it was nothing but a ploy by Interplay to save time.

Assuming Interplay is in breach. Bethesda have only moved to say they are, and Interplay seem to be fighting the accusations. That is all we know right now.

It is also not in Interplay's (or any company's) interest to disclose financial information to the public sector. It's unlikely we'll recieve any information of their secured funds, the only indication being if the project gets underway.

Interplay is public and have to in SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) fillings.

gamesas does not because its private.

This is excellent news. Herve Caen, the destroyer of Interplay will hopefully now take the hint and crawl back into his grave where he belongs. And, we will not have to suffer a World of Falloutcraft. :thumbsup: Fallout was and always has been a single player experience, and I for one do not want to see that messed with. Me personally, I'm for the most part happy with what Bethesda has done with Fallout. I'm a Fallout vet from the early days and loved all the original games, but I like F3 too. It has its problems, but I'm very glad to have a new Fallout game to play after so many years.
For those that hate Bethesda's take on Fallout, and are eternally outraged over all Beth's "blasphemy" and "sacrilege" against Fallout... why are you still here? No one's forcing you to play the game or haunt this forum. Don't go away mad, just go away..

Cute words, but they're directed at phantoms, heh.

There WILL be a Fallout Online. What we don't know is if it will be made by Iplay or Zenimax.

Actually, it is the duty of any public company to constantly disclose financial information to the market (ie- the public sector), hence the 10-K that everyone's quoting from. Giving incorrect information intentionaly is a crime.

Since we do know the financial obligations required of Interplay to keep the license, and we do know their balance sheet, its a closed case.

Well this svcks. I was actually looking forward to it. Since I doubt Interplay has or even ever had a chance of obtaining 30 million dollars, this is one MMO that will never see the light of day.

I think it's safe to assume that Zenimax Online Studio's current project (which they've been working on for some time) isn't a Fallout MMO. Given that, and given how long a successful MMO can dominate a developer, it would probably be a very long time before ZOS could begin working on a Fallout MMO of their own.

Granted, if their current project is successful enough they may be able to add a new developement team and work on concurrent projects, rather like Bethesda at the moment. However that still requires that they finish their game and that it demonstrates staying power.

I'd expect they're more interested in getting the license back to prevent a poorly funded Interplay from releasing a half-finished MMO and damaging the brand. (Again, if you feel FO3 already damaged the brand please take that conversation to an appropriate topic rather than pursuing it here.)

It's a cash cow they'd lose out on milking - or so their thinking would go, WoW's svcked the air out of the room a bit - not caring about the "brand" or anything of the sort.

Looks like I'll stick with Fallen earth....

Pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
fffft.

[censored] you

Guiness makes me invincible,,,,>_<

I have never said "blasphemy" or "sacrilege" but c'mooooooooooooon.........srsly?????????.....

Nuuuu I'm not being forced, but ummm, I did pay for this game Alright yeah I should have done my research. SORRY for thinking FO3 would have been a worthy sequel, stupid, stupid me. *bangs one's head on stuff*

Strangely enough I like the discussion here, even though I haven't played FO3 for months, and haven't been able to stomach more than two playthroughs. But yeah, you can just pretend I'm not here, see that 'ignore' field in your control panel? Just type "FalloutChris" in there, then you don't need to feel plagued by my presence anymore

Welcome to the party, good luck using logic and sound ideas though. ^

The state I'm in right now. Very unlikely Logic is out the window as are sound ideas until I goto sleep and wake up and regret a few things ^_^

When the flames climb too high and the fire gets so hot it burns we say goodnight and put the thread to rest.

How do we treat one another so badly, be so condescending and ever imagine we will find agreement or understanding of our fellow member?

Goodnight my friends, this party is dead.