Bethesda and the SPECIAL license

[Big T]

I can see four possible reasons for Bethesda buying the rights to the SPECIAL system.
1. They intend to use it for their Fallout game (hopefully)
2. They intend to use it in another game (unlikely)
3. IPLY forced them to take it as a package deal with the Fallout license (to bump up the price) (possible)
4. Somebody cocked up (possible, but I would hope not too likely given that Fallout is now in their hands)

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Does Bethesda have the Van Buren code? Was that part of the deal or not?

It helps to have read the news and interviews.

So I went back to read the interviews again and to pluck out the press realeases, trying to clean out the mess of "too early's" in my head. But nowhere did I find mentioned the fact that Bethesda now posesses the Van Buren code. Sure they talk about the assets and about how they don't know yet what to use of it, but I didn't read "yes, we have the code, but we're not going to use it." Is is so hard to imagine that, although they have the right to the setting and story, they do not own the actual code and engine?

 

[Roshambo]

Nyarlathotep: If you had read the interviews, as you have claimed, then you would have noticed a rather important answer that puts it clearly in black and white. Yet again, I will be treated as the criminal because someone couldn't be bothered to be informed on their own and I had to deal with them. That seems to be a common occurance lately.

Oh, another snippet for the ignorants who decided to comment that this was "just recent".

IGNPC: Can you tell us how long Bethesda has had its eye on Fallout?

Pete Hines: A pretty long time. For the majority of five years we've said, internally, that if we could pick another game to develop internally, it's been that we could do a great Fallout game. It's something we've talked about internally for a very long time.

So you're a group of developers that discusses doing something like this for that long of time, but once the rights are bought, you suddenly don't know anything?

Cow pasture.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Why, I must be blind. I'll get beck to those interviews. I never treated you as a criminal, did I? Now you've got me completely confused. Did I handcuff you?

 

[Roshambo]

Why, I must be blind. I'll get beck to those interviews.

You do that, as I suggested the FIRST time I had to repeat myself for your behalf.

I never treated you as a criminal, did I? Now you've got me completely confused. Did I handcuff you?

I'm sorry. Some people seem to have this confused with the "We're desperate for someone to post" forum. We have enough people, yet we do have standards and an observation of netiquette. It's annoying to see people registering to post upon reflex into the first news topic they can find because they couldn't find on their own what they're looking for otherwise, even when it's pointed out AGAIN by someone who is getting VERY FUCKING TIRED of having to repeat themselves ten times or more a day for the benefit of every presumptuous newbie that registers and is too lazy to bother reading on their own or can't bother to work a search function.

Damn, folks, it's what the forum and news is for, to read about this before you post ignorance. A lot of this isn't directed at you, personally, so take it in stride.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

I know what you're talking about. You should see how many people ask when Call of Cthulhu finally comes out Sorry if my first posts were short and stupid, as I was tired at the moment

I actually did read the interviews, then skimmed over them after your first reply and now I'm going to scrutinize every single word in them to find that piece of info you are talking about. If I find it, I'll apologise to you and to the entire Fallout community, okay?

 

[Roshambo]

I actually did read the interviews, then skimmed over them after your first reply and now I'm going to scrutinize every single word in them to find that piece of info you are talking about. If I find it, I'll apologise to you and to the entire Fallout community, okay?

I can't blame you for understanding what went on, and so to show there's really no hard feelings or anything, I will point it out myself. Here is the interview.

Here's the point in question:

GS: Will Bethesda's Fallout 3 retain any elements of the "Van Buren" game that was in development at Black Isle Studios? Reports are it was nearly complete.

TH: No, we're going to start fresh.

So, since they aren't retaining any parts of Van Buren, Interplay probably didn't bother to take that out of storage. I will have to admit it is inferred that they are not doing anything with the previous work (through "retain any elements" and "start fresh") and thusly didn't acquire the materials, and I believe someone else has said something to that effect, though I cannot remember where at this point.

You have made me think about another possibility. Now if they are basing another design on what Van Buren was and using that as a design doc, I...uh...very mixed feelings on that one. I doubt that is the direction they are taking. Though, I'm still not sure that Bethesda knows the setting and the artistic design to the right flavor as Chef Boyarsky cooked up.

 

[Brother None]

Now just curious but say they had that right, and then interplay collapsed, and troika obtained the rights. Could both companies make Fallout 3 at the same time, or at least two Fallout RPG's at the same time?

No.

So, since they aren't retaining any parts of Van Buren, Interplay probably didn't bother to take that out of storage. I will have to admit it is inferred that they are not doing anything with the previous work (through "retain any elements" and "start fresh") and thusly didn't acquire the materials, and I believe someone else has said something to that effect, though I cannot remember where at this point.

"Start afresh" implies, but doesn't mean necessarily, that they don't have the design docs. They might have them and use them as reference works. Doubt it, but could be.

 

[Roshambo]

I'm still leaning on the "No" in reply to the whole question. That would mean that no, they are not retaining (using) any elements. I really think that the materials are not complete enough to really use as a basis for development from, but not using any of the elements. At the point where Van Buren was at, it's quite likely that most of it was still on paper, proverbially or not.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

That definitely puts things in perspective. They've said they'd been discussing the what-if scenario of making a Fallout game for five years. We know that the bidding on the Fallout rights started with the cancellation of BIS's Fallout 3 seven months ago. It just seems odd to me that they'd be offering a multimillion dollar deal with Interplay and not have any plans set, beyond it being multiplatform, for the thing if they got it.

I'm not saying that it's totally unlikely that Bethesda doesn't have anything in place. However, I think if I was ponying up several million dollars for something, I'd have plans set for once I obtained those assets so I could move as quickly as possible to start recouping that investment.

Of course, Bethesda isn't a public company. They don't have to explain to anyone why their profits are down at the end of this quarter.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

I just made a big post with all the info about what was said about the Van Buren project, I come back here to post it, and you already provided me with the answer

What Howard said about the Van Buren didn't imply that they have the engine. I suspect that they didn't choose to licence that together with the IP and the SPECIAL ruleset.

If they did choose to finish Van Buren, I think the quality of the game would have sufferd from the 'too many chefs at the stove' phenomenon (if Van Buren did not suffer from that already). The game would never be the game Black Isle intended it to be. A fresh start is the most logical thing to do, I suspect.

Of course, that would only work if Bethesda could make the Fallout world their own...