Bethesda and Interplay have settled the long-running lawsuit over Fallout MMO rights. Interplay has lost, but who wins?
Sads news for those hoping for Interplay to develop a Fallout MMO - it ain't gonna happen. Bethesda's recently announced it has achieved a successful outcome in its messy litigation against Interplay, and that the rights to a Fallout MMO have been restored to Bethesda. In the words of the official announcement:
Under the terms of the settlement, the license granted to Interplay to develop the Fallout MMO is null and void, and all rights granted to Interplay to develop a Fallout MMO revert back to Bethesda, effective immediately. Interplay has no ongoing right to use the Fallout brand or any Fallout intellectual property for any game development.
Further, Bethesda (or, more accurately, Zenimax, its owner) will shell out $2 million to Interplay, and Interplay gets to keep the rights to Fallout Tactics, Fallout and Fallout 2 until December 2013. From then, though, Bethesda will be sole owner of all Fallout properties.
However, while some outlets have taken this to be a glass half-empty proposition, and that we'll now never see a Fallout MMO, we're not so sure. There's nothing to say that Bethesda hasn't quietly been working on it, and waiting for this last stumbling block to fall. There's certainly nothing to say they can't start now - after all, a Fallout MMO would be like crack to a whole mess of gamers.
We can but hope...
Issue: 137 | June, 2012