Bethesda gets FOOL rights, Interplay gets $2 million

[Ed of Vault 13]

PS: shamefully, I would buy a cool repackaging of Fallout 1/2 if Bethesda decides to publish such.

Pfft... I would, proudly.

You must work for Bethesda .....I would actually buy one too. Maybe they can release a cool Bobblehead with it.

Work for Beth...? Man, if you actually knew me.

I certainly don't sustain the hatred that everyone must systemically reserve for Beth, but I do have my quibbles about features in FO3's design.

I personally don't care who's name is attached to these trio of games as I own many iterations of each and will continue to collect and support great PC games of the past - especially if they are some of my most favorite games, period.

 

[Sigoya]

I sympathize with Masthead Studios, who are the real losers in this deal, but that said, I hope they convert their FOOL iteration into something playable (and profitable) on the long run.

Such a waste of time and effort

 

[Millim]

In a way, I'm glad that Beth have got the full liscience. It now means interplay won't release Fallout: Enclave, or some shitty sequal to PoS

 

[frosty_theaussie]

In a way, I'm glad that Beth have got the full liscience. It now means interplay won't release Fallout: Enclave, or some shitty sequal to PoS

Fallout: HaroldQuest. Tend to Bob, the head foliage that we all know and love, nuturing it from sapling to tree. Plant seeds from its fruit and start your very own Fallout Farm! Coming to Facebook in 2012.

 

[Strom]

But Bethesda has always seemed pretty open about working with digital download services. If anything, it'll just spread Fallout to more services, like Steam.

Fallout 1/2/Tactics have been available from steam for a long time. And it's Bethesda that is changing its mind about steam lately. Skyrim & RAGE aren't available to quite a few countries in europe, including Estonia where I live.

 

[Gnarles Bronson]

Maybe bethesda is as bad as Interplay, but I do get the feeling like this was a david vs goliath fight in which david just got whomped on.

and I feel kinda bad about it for some reason.

 

[Brother None]

Fallout 1/2/Tactics have been available from steam for a long time.

Oh yeah. I forgot.

Skyrim & RAGE aren't available to quite a few countries in europe, including Estonia where I live.

Does Bethesda publish those worldwide? Because usually the problem is local publishers, not them. They've been all in with Steam since New Vegas, and all in with digital download since day one.

 

[Elven6]

Imagine you are Chris Taylor, you are passionate about MMOs and want to try to develop some and innovate. Here Interplay approaches you, saying they know you love Fallout and, hey, it so happens they have the rights to Fallout fucking online. And it's all legit, all signed, no one would screw you over here.

You get Mark O'Green on board. You release the teaser website (which, fuck you if you disagree, was nice), get the Armageddon Rag stories sent. Do you remember Taylor actually replying with his ideas and plans about FOOL over at at Interplay forums, even visiting NMA here, sounding somewhat proud to say that their servers could not handle the visitor traffic of the teaser website. The man was invested.

Fast forward to today, Interplay fucking sold out, as always, for 2 meagre milion! Are you fucking kidding me?! The waste of human work pains me.

I don't know any other franchise with so many cancelled games.

I wouldn't say they sold out, we don't really know the full details. What we can infer is the case was likely not going in their favor given the dismissed evidence heading into the trial so it's possible they really had no choice but to settle, wouldn't say the case was going in Bethesda's favor either since they had issues as well(just an opinion, not a lawyer or anything).

I never got the impression Bethesda is itching to do a Fallout MMO. They are working on a TES MMO, though, and that should be massively successful, at least initially.

As for GOG, the old contract will indeed be void by this sale unless Interplay included clauses in the transfer, which I doubt they did. But Bethesda has always seemed pretty open about working with digital download services. If anything, it'll just spread Fallout to more services, like Steam.

They'll likely do an Elder Scrolls MMO first and depending on how that will do I think eventually we could see a Fallout MMO from them.

You can buy the original Fallout titles (and various other classic Interplay titles like Decent/Freespace) on almost every existing digital service (including Steam), its been like that for a while now. Interplay has been pretty open to digital distribution and were even founding publishers on services like GOG and Beamdog IIRC.

 

[Surf Solar]

Fallout as a franchise is dead anyway, why mourn and bemoan something that was buried 14 years ago?

 

[shihonage]

I am certain that the game was being developed borderline generic just in case of this happening. So the only thing Interplay loses is ability to market their post-apocalyptic MMO based on Fallout franchise.

 

[Black]

If you ask me, bethesda had a lot of fools already!!





Yeah, fine, I know where the exit is.

 

[TorontoReign]

Fallout as a franchise is dead anyway, why mourn and bemoan something that was buried 14 years ago?

I disagree. New Vegas rocked. At least we got one good new game.

 

[Eternal]

Fallout as a franchise is dead anyway, why mourn and bemoan something that was buried 14 years ago?

I disagree. New Vegas rocked. At least we got one good new game.

It wasn't fallout though. Mario RPG is a great game too but it wasn't a Mario game it was a squaresoft RPG with Mario as a setting.

Hopefully this means we wont have to see anymore from Lionel Hutz for a while.

 

[Jabu]

End of an era. Things must be pretty desperate for Herve, and the figure doesn't even cover legal fees. I never truly expected the rights to revert - though man, what a fascinating shitstorm that would be -but I thought they'd eventually niggle their way to a double digit settlement. This is pitiful. Watching V13 fail will be a masochistic indulgence in schadenfreude.

 

[Yazman]

So sick and fucking tired of Interplay. I used to love them back in the days they were putting out Black Isle stuff, Fallout and Fallout 2, PST, and a whole range of amazing stuff.

But ever since they began the slide downhill, destroying everything that is Fallout, putting out FOBOS and planning FOBOS 2, cancelling Van Buren, CLOSING Black Isle, and making stupid fucking decisions at every turn.

I just want them to die (the company, in a figurative sense meaning no more Interplay, not the employees themselves). Not only do I not want a Fallout MMO - I don't want to see one of my all time favourite series watered down, trashed and shit on any more than it already has been by being turned into another WOW clone - but I don't want Interplay to fucking survive at all!

As crappy as Fallout 3 was at times, NV was amazing, and I still think that Fallout is better off with Bethesda than with Interplay.

Those stupid fuckwits don't deserve to have a company anymore, fuck Herve Caen.

 

[TheWesDude]

2m just seems so paltry...

especially with the tortious interference when they were trying to sell their back catalog

 

[Corith]

Knowing Herve, which I do . . .

I suspect he ran with the lawsuit and when the evidence piled up that he failed to live up to the terms of the contract, he folded with the idea of releasing HIS own post-apocalyptic MMO sans the name "Fallout" and pocked 2 million in the process.

 

[Kerr-Plomb]

I am certain that the game was being developed borderline generic just in case of this happening. So the only thing Interplay loses is ability to market their post-apocalyptic MMO based on Fallout franchise.

It changes the whole funding situation. Fallout is a stronger IP than a completely new one. And it's not like Interplay can present a catalogue of their recent successful games.

It's more likely that they'll die. Most likely all current funding is gone as it's based on the premise that it'll be a fallout mmo, now it won't be that anymore.

 

[LinkPain]

Unless they let Obsidian do another Fallout game, we'll see only hollow games from Bethesda. We only had hollow games from them since a long time ago. All talk, all press, no real game. They could have taken Van Buren idea for FO3, but sadly, they didn't. And now it's going to be rape of Fallout universe until it bleeds out finally. Besides TES they don't have much.

But the lawsuit outcome surprised me. I was hoping they would get more than measly 2 million.

Maybe Bethesda isn't doing TES MMO, maybe it was Fallout MMO all along. We don't know what the game it is, is it fantasy at all, and this lawsuit was going on for a long time.

 

[Prosatanos]

Bethesda - gluttons ,they never don't know anything about "Fallout" and the Fallout's atmosphere and never be able to understand it.

INSTITUTION WITH INEXHAUSTIBLE LUST FOR MORE & MORE GOLD - this is Bethesda