Interplay under investigation

Kharn said:
But look at it this way, what does a bank want with a gaming license? They'll auction it off, or possibly reach a deal with one of Interplay's creditors, like Vivendi U.
Click to expand...

In addition, it is being sued for $156,000 in back Baldur's Gate royalties by BioWare.
Click to expand...
 
Bethesda
Click to expand...

That's not a surprise.

Many of the developers that work at Bethesda have been long time fans of both the Wasteland and Fallout franchises, and have always wanted to do something with the Post-Apocalypic genre.

Since Fargo (InXile) recently bought the rights to Wasteland, it makes sense that Bethesda would take a stab at purchasing the Fallout license.

Too bad Herve blew the deal (probably his greed got in the way of common sense, again). Bethesda's Morrowind II engine sounded promising, and I would have liked to have seen a Fallout game using their new technology.
 
Kharn said:
Odin said:
bethesda
Click to expand...

Minor ewww.

In addition, it is being sued for $156,000 in back Baldur's Gate royalties by BioWare.
Click to expand...

Major ewww. BioWare, ugh.
Click to expand...

If we're permitted a little fantasising, how does Bioware picking up both spare licenses, developing BG3 themselves and doing a KOTOR 2 with FO3 sound? I'd be happy.
 
King of Creation said:
Well, since Obsidian is doing KOTOR 2, i don't think that's gonna happen.
Click to expand...

No, that's the point. Do BG3 in-house and get Obsidian to make FO3 for them. Bioware keep the "mainstream" product and give the development studio that includes the lead designer for PST the more "niche" (and therefore hopefully more "hardcore") title. What's not to like?
 
how does Bioware picking up both spare licenses, developing BG3 themselves and doing a KOTOR 2 with FO3 sound?
Click to expand...

After Bitch-slapping Herve into legal submission, Atari owns the complete rights to the Baldur's Gate franchise (all that Interplay owns is the Dark Alliance logo and the art material).

If Bioware wanted to do BG3, it would probably take Ray or Greg one phone call to get the project. It's no secret that Atari wants Bioware to do another D&D product for them.


Fallout is another story. We'll have to wait for the legal dust to settle before finding out who finally owns the Fallout franchise. I'm sure that Bioware (or Obsidian) is high on most publishers wish list to develop Fallout 3, but there are no guarantees.
 
It's in the publisher's interest to give the development of FO3 to Troika or Obsidian, NOT bioware, simply because the people who will buy a FO sequal are the people who know about the developers, who made the first games, etc. I.e. not the 'mass market' (who will proabbly only buy FO3 through good word of mouth from fans), but the relatively large amount of hardcore fans who'll pimp the game on all the internet forums they visit (every forum I go to there's at least one FO fan). Hence if the license survives Iplay's death, I'm pretty confident it will go to a good developer.
Although seeing what's happened to JA3 kind of disproves this (Goes to a developer whose only game is perhaps one of the worst games in the past 5 years).

As for Bethseda, well they probably have the money now given Morrowind's PC and Xbox success. I trust them to make it a PC only game, I'm not sure how they'd handle turn based combat, and let's face it, dialogue hasn't been a strong point in their past games. I'd rather they published the game for another developer, like they did with Sea Dogs, but I'd much rather they did the game than the license fade into obscurity.
 
Eragon2004 said:
Too bad Herve blew the deal (probably his greed got in the way of common sense, again). Bethesda's Morrowind II engine sounded promising, and I would have liked to have seen a Fallout game using their new technology.
Click to expand...

Morrowind.. The combat sucked bad as did the dialogue system. The plot for the game was linear as hell, as were all the guild quests. The only major fun I had with the game was exploring around the island. Sea Dogs and Pirates of the Caribbean weren't that good as CRPGs either, so big MEH on them.

At this point, though, I think Herve's trying to sell it all rather than piece it out. The company is already losing value as it stands with all the fines and things they've set themselves up for. Then there's all the interest on that debt as well that's been building up.

You sell a property, you'll get a little money to pay off some of that debt, but the company's sale value also drops that much more.

As an upside, Herve and crew will never, ever see those hundreds of millions of dollars they spent buying uo Interplay in the first place.
 
Eragon2004 said:
Bethesda's Morrowind II engine sounded promising, and I would have liked to have seen a Fallout game using their new technology.
Click to expand...
Fallout 3: The First Person Pespective - Morrowind II Engine Adventure. You start the game off in a prison cell on a ship... train and are transported to Seyda N... a post apocalyptic prison. After being told you fulfil the prophecy, you set out on an adventure to destroy demon... robots and the Big Bad Foozle who's building a God... Giant Robot to destroy the world. On your way, you do quest after linear quest before killing the God.. Giant Robot and never touching the game again.

Gameplay example:
You encounter an NPC! Please sift through the list of available dialogue options to find the one that says "quest":
- Quest.
- Trade.
- Ginormous list of irrelevant information that every other NPC of this type knows as well.
- Exit.

You have chosen [quest]. Your quest is:
- Person X owes me money. I want you to go from point A to point B and get the money or kill person X. Return to me when you are done.

You travel to point B and encounter point X. Please sift through the list of available dalogue choices to find one that's not generic:
- Money?
- Combat
- Ginormous list of irrelevant information that every other NPC of this type knows as well.
- Exit.

You chose [Money?]. Person X responds:
I do not have the money.

Please sift through the list of responses to find one that's not generic:
- I will pay for you.
- I will raise the money for you.
- Combat.
- Ginormous list of irrelevant information that every other NPC of this type knows as well.
- Exit.

You have chosen [I will pay for you], this is not an acceptable option.
You have chosen [I will raise the money for you], this is not an acceptable option.
You have chosen combat. Please click the mouse once to kill Person X.

Person X is dead.

XP++


Ad infinitum.
 
I liked Morrowind well enough, even though as was said it's really short on combat and dialogue - I really, really wouldn't want to see Fallout done in that style though, even if they were going to bring combat and dialogue up to Fallout's level.

BTW, why didn't they get the license? Herve must have really been asking for an absurd amount of money for it for them to turn it down, since I'm sure Bethesda has enough to make a reasonable offer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top