Interplay Loses Rights to Fallout MMO

Vault101

I'm in your mind fuzz
Sep 26, 2010
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Hal10k said:
newwiseman said:
So when is the Bethesda Fallout MMO coming out? I'll play it if it isn't a grind-fest.
Depends. Bethesda probably wouldn't have pursued this lawsuit so vigorously if they weren't already planning on producing their own MMO. If they had jumped the gun on development even before they started thinking about the lawsuit, and it starts off as a relatively small-scale project with plans for expansion, it could be as little as 1-2 years. Otherwise, expect the normal development time for an MMO. For reference on how long that can take for a relatively high quality project, planning on The Old Republic and Rift both began as early as 2006.
so there WILL be one?

uggghhh...forgive me but would that mean the fallout franchise..would go the way of the Warcraft franchise? :/
 

Double A

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Jul 29, 2009
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Irridium said:
So what does this mean for the Fallout games up on GoG? Will those be taken down once Bethesda gets full control of the license?
Arena and Daggerfall are already free. Perhaps we'll get lucky.
 

JWAN

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Dec 27, 2008
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Im surprised that it ended at all. I expected it to go on like the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

And I am GLAD it is over. Now interplay can get back to making Descent
 

natster43

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Jul 10, 2009
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Personally I just want someone to make the Fallout D20 a reality. But good to here that this is finally over.
 

Hal10k

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Vault101 said:
Hal10k said:
newwiseman said:
So when is the Bethesda Fallout MMO coming out? I'll play it if it isn't a grind-fest.
Depends. Bethesda probably wouldn't have pursued this lawsuit so vigorously if they weren't already planning on producing their own MMO. If they had jumped the gun on development even before they started thinking about the lawsuit, and it starts off as a relatively small-scale project with plans for expansion, it could be as little as 1-2 years. Otherwise, expect the normal development time for an MMO. For reference on how long that can take for a relatively high quality project, planning on The Old Republic and Rift both began as early as 2006.
so there WILL be one?

uggghhh...forgive me but would that mean the fallout franchise..would go the way of the Warcraft franchise? :/
If they weren't planning on making an MMO, they probably wouldn't have bothered with the lawsuit. The contract already provided them with a decent flow of money just for providing the rights, and they would have known from the beginning that this was going to be a pretty hefty court case. The only reason I can think of for them to pursue it would be to get rid of the potential awkwardness of two, separate Fallout MMOs. This is all just a wild man's guesswork, but I consider it to be organized guesswork.

Anyway, Bethesda Softworks is in possession of the rights now, not Bethesda Game Studios, the actual development team. If my guesswork is accurate, Softworks will probably farm out the MMO to a studio they keep on a tighter leash, and just let Game Studios keep developing single-player games. Wouldn't really make sense to turn around your experienced team of single-player RPG developers and make them create an MMO. Be sort of like hiring a five-star chef to design you a house.
 

viranimus

Thread killer
Nov 20, 2009
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Sucal said:
much needed snip
I wanted to write a long thesis style response (yes this is me keeping it brief), but I lack the energy to put vigor into it especially considering that if you can write a post that way off base and missed even my most obvious points then there is very little hope that this post will fare any better.

However, I will say this.

Many people make settlements in the law every day even when they are in the right, because of external reasons to right or wrong in the law. I know because I am one, and I am certain I am not the only one. Interplay could easily be in the right, but choose to settle the agreement because they know they cant continue paying the lawyers to keep the fight going as just one of MANY examples of how people will willingly give up being right in the law in exchange for what is logical or practical. Interplay was in the right. They were moving along with the MMO just as the agreement had stated, until Bethesda started to interject into it wanting the rest of the IP for themselves that they had no claim to, and started using litigated force to break down their resistance and take it from them.

Oblivion, Fallout3, New Vegas, Skyrim, are all using in essence the same engine, and in some cases reuse the same assets paired into twos. They all four use the same narrative tropes, and exhibit the same gameplay mechanics. Dont forget that from development standpoint, building an engine, creating assets, are the hardest developmental stages. writing the narrative, scripting it out are fairly easy (just look at how quickly any company can pump out narrative driven DLC once the toolset has been created, or how quickly amature modders can craft their own with small teams) Or for that matter how long it takes for an establish IP to get its next installment released on a new console and how quickly the next installment after that is ready to go. Or, yeah, just look at how the industry works. its all right there.

They are not sequels in a narrative context, but in gameplay they are the same thing, so perhaps sequel isnt the best term, but would Regurgitated installment been preferable?

Seriously. What exactly can you point out thats unique to any of these 4 titles? Cause anything you can point to as "keeping it different" I can point to something showing where its been done before or its an irrelevant factor. (Irrelevant as in Obsidian being the "developers" of New Vegas considering the oversight was done by bethesda, the tools belonged to them, and many of the early assets are directly pooled from Fallout 3)

I purposely portray Bethsda in the same light as Activisions developer teams because Bethesda is trying to become the activision of RPGs. Their Standard operating procedure is mirroring them, the time tables they are working on mirrors them. Their level of sphincterocity in dealing with customers and or the industry mirrors them. Hell they might as well be them and drawing that comparison is a fair comparison to make because they are both guilty of the same things. Only difference is Bethesda is just later to the game Activision and EA have been playing, in part because they had to first set the precedent, and in part because an RPG, even a copy pasta one, takes longer to copy pasta than a FPS or Madden title as there is simply more content at the base level.

So is there anyone who does open worlds better than Bethesda? Yes, basically anyone who tries, because honestly what you get out of any Bethesda title is literally like scraping the bottom of the barrel with modified decade old engine and a constant stream of unimaginative, bland and regurgitated narrative expositions that play out like they were slightly modified from files found on tvtropes and a gameplay mechanic that was pretty unimpressive back in 2004. Couple all that with an often rushed and extensively buggy release and you find yourself with a very subpar product that rabid fanboys blind themselves to all the glaring flaws present.

But you know what.. you wont see any of this. Ive just wasted my time because surely nothing I just said made any sense, and it must be blatantly wrong with absolutely no bearing in reality. Yep, that must be it. Sorry for that. You were right. Just ignore this post all together.

EDIT: Also, the assessment that Bethesda ever owned the IP is blatantly incorrect. Go back and read the actual terms of the agreement. Interplay licensed the franchise to Bethesda and it was set to return to Interplay after Bethesda made 3 installments in exchange for Interplay being able to make the MMO. So the other assessment is correct. Bethesda used their overwhelming monetary clout to strong arm interplay into conceding any and all claims to the property. Really it is completely irrelevant if this incarnation of Interplay has nothing to do with the orignal interplay. What this is about is a company, who has made more profit than they know what to do with, utilizing it to buy out companies, and use litigation to crush competition so they can make even more money and expand that even further.
 

erbkaiser

Romanorum Imperator
Jun 20, 2009
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Great news. This new Interplay is after all just the name -- the real people behind it are Tidus Interactive, the studio that brought us 'classics' like Superman on the N64.
 

Hungry Donner

Henchman
Mar 19, 2009
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Hal10k said:
Depends. Bethesda probably wouldn't have pursued this lawsuit so vigorously if they weren't already planning on producing their own MMO. If they had jumped the gun on development even before they started thinking about the lawsuit, and it starts off as a relatively small-scale project with plans for expansion, it could be as little as 1-2 years.
Hal10k said:
Anyway, Bethesda Softworks is in possession of the rights now, not Bethesda Game Studios, the actual development team. If my guesswork is accurate, Softworks will probably farm out the MMO to a studio they keep on a tighter leash, and just let Game Studios keep developing single-player games.
Bethesda has a sister-company that was founded for the purposes of making MMOs, Zenimax Online Studios. ZOS has been working on their own project for a few years now, and during the legal proceedings it was confirmed that game doesn't involve Fallout in any way. It seems unlikely that the Fallout MMO rights would be licensed to someone else in the near future: this would require going outside the Zenimax Media family of studios and such a game would potentially be in competition with ZOS's. I think it's far more likely that Bethesda has no short term plans for the license, and it will lie dormant until ZOS is available for a new game. If their current project is successful that means it could be years before they're considering something like this.

When this dispute began Bethesda basically accused Interplay of not having the resources or money to produce this game. I suspect Bethesda felt the project was doomed to fail or would be poor quality, either of which could have harmed the Fallout brand.
 

Skoldpadda

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Jan 13, 2010
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It's for the best. If I want a good Fallout game to be made, I want it to be done by Interplay. If, on the other hand, the IP is going to be shat on from a great height, Bethesda are the guys for the job. That's what they already make anyway: singleplayer MMO's.
 

ZombieGenesis

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Apr 15, 2009
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Every part of my being stands behind the "Bethesda is the better choice" argument for developing future titles... except that one part that's reminded just how terrible New Vegas was. I'm not just talking bugs either- 99% of that game was reused assets from Fallout 3. Even most of the 'new' enemies were just reskins of Fallout 3 ones with the same AI (remember those spore carriers? Revisit the Pitt and they might seem familiar)

That said I doubt Interplay has much more to swing in the way of budget. They have been pretty much living in obscurity since the 90's.
 

NLS

Norwegian Llama Stylist
Jan 7, 2010
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Irridium said:
So what does this mean for the Fallout games up on GoG? Will those be taken down once Bethesda gets full control of the license?
Most likely, unless Bethesda themselves decide to republish them on GoG. This will however also mean they can start selling copies of Fallout 1 & 2 with Fallout 3/NV/4 on Steam.
 

Albino Boo

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Jun 14, 2010
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Hal10k said:
If they weren't planning on making an MMO, they probably wouldn't have bothered with the lawsuit. The contract already provided them with a decent flow of money just for providing the rights, and they would have known from the beginning that this was going to be a pretty hefty court case. The only reason I can think of for them to pursue it would be to get rid of the potential awkwardness of two, separate Fallout MMOs. This is all just a wild man's guesswork, but I consider it to be organized guesswork.

Anyway, Bethesda Softworks is in possession of the rights now, not Bethesda Game Studios, the actual development team. If my guesswork is accurate, Softworks will probably farm out the MMO to a studio they keep on a tighter leash, and just let Game Studios keep developing single-player games. Wouldn't really make sense to turn around your experienced team of single-player RPG developers and make them create an MMO. Be sort of like hiring a five-star chef to design you a house.

The real reason why Bethesda went to law is to protect their investment. They bought the licence from Interplay and spent maybe around $30-50 million on advertising Fallout bringing an old IP back from the dead. Along come interplay who want to capitalise on that expenditure by making an MMO and freeload on Bethesda's advertising campaigns. Also if the new MMO is jut plain bad, it will more than likely have a knock on affect on the reputation of the Fallout games made by Bethesda.
 

JemothSkarii

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Nov 9, 2010
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Kinda sucks, but if Bethesda keeps working with Obsidian on the whole Fallout thing, I will be one happy fan...even if I do miss the original Black Isle ones (probably why I liked New Vegas so much). I like Interplay a lot; apart from Fallout, they also published ANOTHER childhood favorite of mine: Wild 9
 

Areani

Senior Member
Dec 18, 2008
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And now I'm sad. Interplay seemed to have some pretty grand plans for the MMO and now, just like that, all that work has been rendered null and void. Oh, well...

Hopefully Bethesda will announce the next game in the series soon.
 
Apr 5, 2008
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Was it as romantic, to paraphrase the OP, to have had FNV made by much of FO and FO2's original dev team, now at Obsidian? I have nothing against Interplay, particularly as in this battle they were defending their legal, contracted rights. If they're happy with the settlement, good for them. It's cool that the case is closed though I am kinda glad Bethesda will take the helm.

FO3 was brilliant, I've replayed it maybe twice which is a lot of hours. Include the fun had with mods, the toolkit, love it. Bethesda don't make good games, they make great games.

Saying that, as much as I enjoyed FO3 and FNV, I can't see an MMO succeeding. It's one thing to make a great single player game, even one with tons of replayability and extra content (in-house and community made). It's another entirely to make an MMO with a big enough world, community features, economy, story, questing, character progression, challenges and content. And with SWTOR out now, the bar is set very high indeed. To beat TOR or the undisputed king, WoW it has to be a sensational MMO...being a good or even very good game simply set in Fallout universe won't be enough. Maybe a F2P game...

I mean if IPs like Lord of the Rings, DCUO, Matrix and even Star Trek can only make above average games, what chance does Fallout have? WoW was unexpected...I can't understand how it had so many players...possibly a blizzard thing. Going back to Warcraft III, the only IP that can come close to it is Command & Conquer....but EA tore Westwood to shreds so *shrug*
 

Earthmonger

Apple Blossoms
Feb 10, 2009
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Hungry Donner said:
Bethesda has a sister-company that was founded for the purposes of making MMOs, Zenimax Online Studios.
Not seen you around since Euro-Morrowind and the even earlier days of the TES forums. Nice to see you still kicking around, HD.
 

Frostbite3789

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Jul 12, 2010
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viranimus said:
YES!Score one for the little guys... who have enough money to throw at a problem so as to get their way!!!!

Honestly I find this disgusting as honestly without question the law was 100% on the side of interplay and basically this boils down to Interplay accepting 2 million dollars to give up the remaining right they had to their creation. (either because they knew they had jack shit in the MMO, or because they just could not keep the litigation going)

And the worst part of it is? the fact that the franchise is in damn near the worst hands humanly possible. (Why yes I love not being able to click my mouse on anything for fear of picking up another useless piece of pixelated garbage) So, bring on more copy pasta sequels! Hooray for supporting the rights of the publishers to make money, cause they use your money to do such worth while things!

/aneurysm

Edit: I would suggest correcting the byline as the Bethesda never had the rights to the MMO, so it is not possible for the MMO rights to return to them.
Yeah, it's a good thing the franchise is in the terrible hands of Bethesda who had Obsidian develop a Fallout game.

Obsidian who has a lot of the people who worked on Fallout and Fallout 2 for Interplay, meanwhile Interplay contains next to nobody who actually worked on either of those games. But I guess if you're just looking to be angry for the sake of being angry (HINT: you are), I guess this is as good a reason as any.

viranimus said:
(Why yes I love not being able to click my mouse on anything for fear of picking up another useless piece of pixelated garbage)
Then you actually hated the original Fallout games I presume?