Fallout MMO Rights Return to Bethesda

[DoctorFinger]

The long, sordid saga of the Fallout MMO appears to have ended. For now.

In a press release which seemed just short of gleeful, Bethesda announced separate settlements with both Interplay, the original owners of the Fallout property, and developer Masthead, which had been working on the Fallout MMO. Bethesda parent Zenimax Media will pay Interplay a $2M consideration, but will end up with all Fallout intellectual property rights free and clear. Interplay can continue to sell copies of Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics through December 2013, at which point all rights to those titles will revert to Bethesda.

It's been a long-running fight, filled with lots of accusations and counterclaims. Bethesda bought the rights to the Fallout series back in 2006 after original publisher Interplay went bankrupt. But a part of the deal allowed Interplay to retain rights to a Fallout MMO already in the nascent stages of development. But only if they began full development by 2008; if not the full rights would revert to Bethesda. That date came and went. Interplay claimed that they had begun development of the MMO, Bethesda disagreed. Thus began the court battle that ended today. Interplay would occasionally release concept art or send out bullet points highlighting features, but Bethesda contended that wasn't enough to satisfy the contract. To further muddy the waters, Interplay began selling Fallout 1, 2 & Tactics digitally, and act which Bethesda claimed violated their property rights.

Bethesda says that they're continuing to work on the Fallout universe, and most analysts assume that they'll return to the property after the DLC cycle for Skyrim is completed.

[Cit Phil Cit]

Long time coming. Now Interplay can finally die.

[MalReynolds]

Interplay is as good as dead

[GunnyMo]

Sad to see the once mighty Interplay go down but it seems for the best. I think Bethesda has done an outstanding job with the Fallout Universe. I'm really looking forward to more from them.

[MagGnome]

I really hope they don't make an MMO. Yuck.

[Savok]

A MMO would mean we couldn't mod the tedium away.

At least get Obsidian to write the thing. Don't let them near the code though, fuck no.

[CES]

Originally Posted by Savok

A MMO would mean we couldn't mod the tedium away.

At least get Obsidian to write the thing. Don't let them near the code though, fuck no.

New Vegas proved that Obsidian can write good code if there's not a publisher constantly prodding them for a quick release date. Lucasarts fucked over KOTOR 2, not Obsidian. Personally, I never saw a single glitch in New Vegas (from launch) that I didn't cause with mods.

Edit: I'll grant you NWN2 though but that's what happens when you take someone else's engine and try to rewrite large parts of it in a hurry.

[evilgoodwin]

Interplay was dead after shutting down their only good studios. Hopefully, they'll give up the rest of their IP's to real companies and get the light on their way out.

[Savok]

Originally Posted by CES

New Vegas proved that Obsidian can write good code if there's not a publisher constantly prodding them for a quick release date. Lucasarts fucked over KOTOR 2, not Obsidian. Personally, I never saw a single glitch in New Vegas (from launch) that I didn't cause with mods.

Edit: I'll grant you NWN2 though but that's what happens when you take someone else's engine and try to rewrite large parts of it in a hurry.

New Vegas was someone else's engine that they didn't try to rewrite, that's why it was relatively stable. The scripting errors in the quests and using companions and doing anything really were fucking everywhere though. I love them dearly but jesus christ they can make a mess.

And fuck Interplay I hope it rots. Back in the 90s they had the absolute worst CDs I've ever come across. Every single one was incredibly warped and most has so much excess crap from the factory on them they'd refuse to spin in the drive. Had to get fine sandpaper and smooth the edges.

[bean]

@Savok - Well said.

I'm trying to imagine a Fallout MMO that doesn't suck and coming up short. Honestly, multiplayer has no place in the Fallout universe. One of the major themes is isolation.

[MosBen]

I have a lot of fond memories of playing Interplay games, so count me among the people kind of sad to see them go out with a whimper like this. Sure, they haven't given me much reason to love them in a long time, but nostalgia doesn't care about the recent past. It's why I can still have fond memories of playing Activision games growing up without getting riled up about what a collection of jerks the company has become.

As for Obsidion, they're clearly not the most crackerjack team out there. There are teams that have put together incredibly polished and impressive games in short amounts of time. It's most definitely possible, but it's also not exactly common either. Most teams seem to require some combination of talent, luck, a good publisher, and time to make it all come out great, and Obsidion has just had problems in a few of those areas several times on their games. It's never been a big enough problem for my opinion of them to drop to the point where I'm wary of their games, but you just sort of have to expect a great, compelling story with a few bumps along the way.

[Ink Asylum]

I have fond memories of playing Interplay games, too, but there comes a time in the life of many video game brands that all the creative talent that made them great is gone and all that's left is a name and some IP. It happened to Atari. It happened to Sierra.

[bean]

Right. I have favorite developers (humans), but not normally brands (companies). If the good doctors left Bioware and took the other talented designers with them, I'd be interested in the new company and wary of the gutted company's products.

[MosBen]

Ink Asylum, that's certainly true, but that's all logic and practicality. I'm just talking nostalgia. No matter how sad the end of Sierra, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the brand because their glory days were indeed glorious. Despite what the Origin brand has become, to me it will always be Ultima, Crusader, Wing Commander, and Privateer. That doesn't mean I'm going to start shopping there (ok, other than when I preordered The Old Republic). Obviously, I also follow my favorite people in the industry, but there's still just something potent from my childhood when I think of that Interplay logo appearing before playing some Carmageddon.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Perhaps they should look to a company that has released a post-apocalyptic MMO before and work with them to create a fantastic game?

*shameless plug*

[bean]

Originally Posted by TheFlyingOrc

Perhaps they should look to a company that has released a post-apocalyptic MMO before and work with them to create a fantastic game?

Which one are you referring to? Auto Assault was interesting, but it didn't do the post apoc theme very well (it felt like an alien world with Mad Max art style as well as crazy sci-fi stuff in places. . . it was not the crumbling ruin of a world that had been destroyed) There was another one released maybe a couple years ago that I had high hopes for but the basic gameplay wasn't any fun (Fallen Earth?). . . very basic combat and way too much emphasis on a crafting game that was tedious instead of fun. By the time I finished the tutorial, I hadn't had one fun moment, so I asked Steam to cancel my preorder.

[Chaos Machine]

Last I checked interplay was basically a company of a couple lawyers. The whole deal with masthead was a farce to try to squeeze bethesda for more money when they didnt want to put serious effort into a franchise worthy mmo. I am glad this shit can be buried done with. Interplay died a long time ago. They squandered the IP for years and had to get rid of in a fire sale to make a quick buck, they saw that they traded the golden goose for an egg in the end and got envious. F them.