Well everybody knows that Interplay is the publisher who created FallOut. Interplay did struggle to survive having once been one of the biggest software publishers in North America to now living hand to mouth day to day. Interplay was in desperate need of capital to restart development of internal products.
So Interplay sold the Intellectual property of FallOut one of their most successful franchises to Bethesda. The agreement below.
"In April 2007, Bethesda Softworks, the developer of Fallout 3, purchased full rights to the Fallout IP for US$5.75 million. While Bethesda now owned the rights to the Fallout MMO IP as well, clauses in the purchase agreement state allowed Interplay to license the rights to the development of the MMO. Specific requirements were stated in the agreement that if not met, Interplay would immediately lose and surrender its license rights for Fallout. Development must have begun within 24 months of the date of the agreement (April 4, 2007), and Interplay must have secured $30 million within that time frame or forfeit its rights to license. Interplay would furthermore need to launch the MMOG within 4 years of the beginning of development, and pay Bethesda 12 percent of sales and subscription fees for the use of the IP." - Wikipedia
It would appear that Interplay was actually able to meet the initial demands supposedly getting the 30-million in funding. Bethesda tried multiple times to stop the FallOut MMO claiming initially that they had just liscensed the name and not the intellectual property itself. The courts threw their case out siding with Interplay. Then Bethesda tried again a few more times. But they lost again in court and so they appealed the last court ruling bringing Interplay back to court to attempt once again to stop the FallOut MMO. But yesterday it was announced that the court once again has sided with Interplay.
"Bethesda was denied a preliminary injunction against Interplay in June, and attempted to appeal the decision. That appeal has now also been denied" - IGN
Now according to the agreement Interplay has the license for the FallOut MMO at a cost of 12% of there subscription fees. The next step apparently is that Bethesda will try and prevent the game from being published if Interplay does manage to launch the game in 2013. The question is with Bethesda doing everything in their power to stop the FallOut MMO is Interplay still capable of producing it?
Do you think Bethesda has a chance of actually stopping the FallOut MMO? Will Interplay actually deliver the FallOut MMO within the four year time slot? Are you interested in the Fall Out MMO?
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
