Bethesda and Interplay reach a settlement on ‘Fallout’ MMO rights
Bethesda must have maxed their Charisma skill.
After a long legal battle, and an official court ruling, publishing giant Bethesda and original Fallout IP owners, Interplay, have reached an agreement on the future of a Fallout MMO. Bethesda has retained all rights to pursue an MMO in the future. This also came with the rights to the franchise which Interplay had won in court — that is to say, Interplay may not release any type of Fallout game. In addition, they may only continue the sale of the classic Fallout 1 & 2 through December of 2013, at which point the titles fall back to Bethesda. Don’t feel too bad for the developer, they did walk away with $2 million, according to Zenimax, as “consideration” money.
Robert Altman said “While we strongly believe in the merits of our suits, we are pleased to avoid the distraction and expense of litigation while completely resolving all claims to the Fallout IP. Fallout is an important property of ZeniMax and we are now able to develop future Fallout titles for our fans without third party involvement or the overhang of others’ legal claims.”
While Zenimax and Bethesda have the rights to a Fallout MMO, there has been no word as to whether or not this will be a reality. Personally, I think we can all agree a full-fledged Fallout 4 would be preferable to an MMO. We have enough MMOs wandering around.
Jen lives with her husband, daughter and super-villain kitty. An avid gamer since the Atari, she honed her skills on Doom 2, Daggerfall and System Shock. A bonafide 360-convert, she plays more than is humanly healthy and is determined to find a decent horror game this generation if it kills her.
