Angry Gamers is angry at Bethesda's treatment of Interplay (thanks GameBanshee).<blockquote>Bethesda's parent company Zenimax, has reared its ugly head and turned Bethesda into an evil pawn in this sleazy form of license acquisition. These are the conditions set by Bethesda to allow Interplay to complete their MMO, you tell me if this seems fair:
* No single player or offline mode in any way.
* Must be for PC or Mac only, no ports to console whatesoever.
* Minimum of 10,000 monthly subscribers.
* Furthermore, Interplay must enter "full-scale" development of the MMO with a minimum of $30 million in funding by two years from the signing of the agreement, or it immediately forfeits its rights to the license.
* Interplay may not sublicense any part of MMO development without Bethesda's approval.
* The MMO "must meet or exceed such quality standards as may be set by Bethesda from time to time" in order for Interplay to remain in good standing, and Bethesda has the right to inspect Interplay's offices and development progress at any time during normal business hours provided two days' notice is given.
* The company must launch the game in North America and Europe within four years of that development commencement date, with the potential for a one-year extension if development is progressing adequately, giving the game a final release date limit of April 9, 2014
* In return for granting Interplay the MMO rights, Bethesda will receive royalties of 12% of sales, subscription fees, or other revenue generated by the game.
Why would Zenimax and Bethesda buy the exclusive Fallout rights? Quite simply, ownership leverage. Acquiring the licensing rights allows Zenimax to set ludacris conditions for Interplay and purposely led them to believe they would still be working on the MMO. They knowingly created these conditions so Interplay would forfeit the MMO rights, at no additional cost to Zenimax other than what had already been incurred upon buying the exclusive rights. Then their new MMO studio, Zenimax Online Studios produces the game and makes a potential profit of at least 88% more than the 12% of royalties it would have gotten from Interplay. Read ahead and see for yourself why these sleazy bastards are robbing Interplay blind.</blockquote>Not to put too fine a point on it but that doesn't make any sense, guys. Interplay signed a contract fully aware that those conditions were part of it. Of course Bethesda's plan was to get the MMO license back for free all along. And of course you can argue it's not a very good deal from Interplay's side.
But how can you blame Bethesda for the contract? They didn't exactly cut off the head of Herve Caen's $600.000 stud horse and put it in his bed while he was sleeping...errr...as far as we know. Still, the sentiment goes on...<blockquote>It definitely seems like Pete Hines is trying to deny it repeatedly. He also said that they're trying to protect what they created but in reality Interplay made the Fallout series a cult classic, not Bethesda (...)
If they do decide to create a Fallout MMO can the greedy assholes at Bethesda/Zenimax handle the launch and upkeep of an MMO? If they can't even release downloadable content without major glitches, how are they going to take on the large-scale issues unique to Massive Multiplayer Gaming? </blockquote>On the other hand, can Interplay? Interplay surprised and impressed quite a few people by actually managing to get a retail Fallout PC bundle rereleased and into major gaming store outlets (Best Buy, Walmart) that barely carry PC shelf space at all (if you don't know why that's actually pretty impressive you haven't been keeping track of the PC industry much), but an MMO is another matter.
Which is part of the reason for this quote from GameInformer magazine that has been floating around (thanks VictorPresper).<blockquote>Flogging the dead horse that is Interplay could be everyone's best interests, if our fourth-grade lawyer logic is correct. Interplay, which had a deal with Bethesda to develop an online Fallout project, has failed to do so in the time allotted in a deal. Now it looks like the rights for a Fallout MMO title are going to Bethesda - which opened its own MMO studio in 2007. Right now, the different sides are hashing things out, and hopefully we'll soon be hearing about a result in Bethesda's favor and a Bethesda-made Fallout MMO to boot.</blockquote>Sucking up and unashamedly showing their bias? Sure. But worried justifiably about a half-alive company taking on FOOL (they seem to be somewhat unaware of Masthead)? Sure.
Discuss.
* No single player or offline mode in any way.
* Must be for PC or Mac only, no ports to console whatesoever.
* Minimum of 10,000 monthly subscribers.
* Furthermore, Interplay must enter "full-scale" development of the MMO with a minimum of $30 million in funding by two years from the signing of the agreement, or it immediately forfeits its rights to the license.
* Interplay may not sublicense any part of MMO development without Bethesda's approval.
* The MMO "must meet or exceed such quality standards as may be set by Bethesda from time to time" in order for Interplay to remain in good standing, and Bethesda has the right to inspect Interplay's offices and development progress at any time during normal business hours provided two days' notice is given.
* The company must launch the game in North America and Europe within four years of that development commencement date, with the potential for a one-year extension if development is progressing adequately, giving the game a final release date limit of April 9, 2014
* In return for granting Interplay the MMO rights, Bethesda will receive royalties of 12% of sales, subscription fees, or other revenue generated by the game.
Why would Zenimax and Bethesda buy the exclusive Fallout rights? Quite simply, ownership leverage. Acquiring the licensing rights allows Zenimax to set ludacris conditions for Interplay and purposely led them to believe they would still be working on the MMO. They knowingly created these conditions so Interplay would forfeit the MMO rights, at no additional cost to Zenimax other than what had already been incurred upon buying the exclusive rights. Then their new MMO studio, Zenimax Online Studios produces the game and makes a potential profit of at least 88% more than the 12% of royalties it would have gotten from Interplay. Read ahead and see for yourself why these sleazy bastards are robbing Interplay blind.</blockquote>Not to put too fine a point on it but that doesn't make any sense, guys. Interplay signed a contract fully aware that those conditions were part of it. Of course Bethesda's plan was to get the MMO license back for free all along. And of course you can argue it's not a very good deal from Interplay's side.
But how can you blame Bethesda for the contract? They didn't exactly cut off the head of Herve Caen's $600.000 stud horse and put it in his bed while he was sleeping...errr...as far as we know. Still, the sentiment goes on...<blockquote>It definitely seems like Pete Hines is trying to deny it repeatedly. He also said that they're trying to protect what they created but in reality Interplay made the Fallout series a cult classic, not Bethesda (...)
If they do decide to create a Fallout MMO can the greedy assholes at Bethesda/Zenimax handle the launch and upkeep of an MMO? If they can't even release downloadable content without major glitches, how are they going to take on the large-scale issues unique to Massive Multiplayer Gaming? </blockquote>On the other hand, can Interplay? Interplay surprised and impressed quite a few people by actually managing to get a retail Fallout PC bundle rereleased and into major gaming store outlets (Best Buy, Walmart) that barely carry PC shelf space at all (if you don't know why that's actually pretty impressive you haven't been keeping track of the PC industry much), but an MMO is another matter.
Which is part of the reason for this quote from GameInformer magazine that has been floating around (thanks VictorPresper).<blockquote>Flogging the dead horse that is Interplay could be everyone's best interests, if our fourth-grade lawyer logic is correct. Interplay, which had a deal with Bethesda to develop an online Fallout project, has failed to do so in the time allotted in a deal. Now it looks like the rights for a Fallout MMO title are going to Bethesda - which opened its own MMO studio in 2007. Right now, the different sides are hashing things out, and hopefully we'll soon be hearing about a result in Bethesda's favor and a Bethesda-made Fallout MMO to boot.</blockquote>Sucking up and unashamedly showing their bias? Sure. But worried justifiably about a half-alive company taking on FOOL (they seem to be somewhat unaware of Masthead)? Sure.
Discuss.
