Bethesda moves to rescind FOOL license

Per

Per

Vault Consort
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We knew it was coming. Interplay has filed their 10-K for 2008, and among various optimistic estimations of the company's immaterial assets and a conspicuous lack of 30 million dollars there is this little passage under the "Legal proceedings" heading:<blockquote>Interplay recently received notice that Bethesda Softworks, LLC ("Bethesda") intends to terminate the trademark license agreement between Bethesda and Interplay which was entered into April 4, 2007 for the development of FALLOUT MMOG. Despite the fact that no formal action is currently pending, Bethesda claims that Interplay is in breach of the trademark license agreement for failure to commence fill scale development of same by April 4, 2009 and to secure certain funding for the MMOG. Interplay adamantly disputes these claims. Although the potential damages are currently unknown, if Bethesda ultimately prevails and cancels the trademark license agreement, Interplay would lose its license back of the "Fallout" MMOG and any damages resulting therefrom are unknown at this time.</blockquote>Whereas if the game gets done the damages will be pretty much apparent. Expect this to drag out for a while still.
 
And in further news:

Bethesda has now successfully pissed off the entire fan base that made them think buying the Fallout license in the first place was a good idea.

Ready your torches men, for tonight we will slay the beast!
 
"Every day the future looks a little darker, but the past, even the grimy parts keep getting brighter"

As long as we keep loving and playing Fallout it will never die...right?

And oh yeah, I'm very pissed, and very deflated, I want to throw away Fallout 3, but it cost a lot of money, and I'm not one to throw away money.
 
This will make or break interplay, unless of course they manage to secure funding later based just on brand name or star power game makers. But really I think if they lose this they're gone, and as per noted, the 30 million is not there...

Bad news, but not unexpected.
 
Now Interplay will have to show the money that Masthead is supplying them with (as they've stated has been done). I think they've got it, but it should just be a matter of time before we know for sure.
 
Seriously folks. Interplay made a desperate grab for ANYTHING they could afford that was in development, simply to make sure they didn't loose the license. Surely nobody here REALLY thought this game was going to be a Fallout Online, did they?
 
I sent this into Kotaku.com as a tip they already posted it (only about 2hours ago) of course they didn't mention it being a tip but w/e :P

NVM Luke Plunkett sent me an email telling me thanks, then again he also thought I was Chris T for some reason.... of course I informed if otherwise after receiving that email.
 
Seriously does this sound like something preplanned by Beth, I mean buy the a part of the license and then put in a clause with conditions that you know that it is almost impossible to pull off (as you have carefully studied interplays financial record), and when the moment is right, sue Interplay (which looks more and more like a terminal cancer patient smoking some really strong pot, having visions of healing) and take the rest of the license, and a partially done game for free (think of the money Beth can save), which than can called also yours, as nobody has even seen a concept art from it. Seriously Beth should have been a law firm. But then maybe I am paranoid I mean there is no way that Pete could be this evil and twisted :twisted: :evil:
 
Note that that 10-K statement is for 2008 and that we didn't find out about the Masthead deal until April 2 so it's quite possible that Masthead is giving them the required finances. I think that Bethesda is basically trying to force Interplay into showing their hand and that they haven't entered into a legal challenge yet. While this doesn't bold well, it certainly isn't final, the next few months will tell the tale (I'd imagine we'll know within ~30 days).
 
nemo00 said:
Seriously does this sound like something preplanned by Beth, I mean buy the a part of the license and then put in a clause with conditions that you know that it is almost impossible to pull off (as you have carefully studied interplays financial record), and when the moment is right, sue Interplay (which looks more and more like a terminal cancer patient smoking some really strong pot, having visions of healing) and take the rest of the license, and a partially done game for free (think of the money Beth can save), which than can called also yours, as nobody has even seen a concept art from it.
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I doubt they'll be using any of Interplay's FOOL when they take the MMO rights back.
In fact, I think it's a lot more likely that they began laying down the groundwork for their own FO3 MMO long ago if they 'preplanned' this.
 
PlanHex said:
I doubt they'll be using any of Interplay's FOOL when they take the MMO rights back.
In fact, I think it's a lot more likely that they began laying down the groundwork for their own FO3 MMO long ago if they 'preplanned' this.
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Nah, my guess is that they would contract out the game to some other studio, like they did with the Star Trek games. Keep in mind that MMOs are not what they "do best" and as such, not likely something that we'll see them develop, at least not with current staff. Besides which, I think starting on FOOL would seem like a bad idea to them when they aren't assured to get the rights back, aren't assured that Fallout 3 will be as successful as they hoped thus have no assurances that FOOL would even be a profitable venture, and have TES which is more assured to be profitable. Besides which, the development team has all been playing Fallout 3 so they've had no time to do any worthwhile work.
 
nemo00 said:
Seriously does this sound like something preplanned by Beth, I mean buy the a part of the license and then put in a clause with conditions that you know that it is almost impossible to pull off (as you have carefully studied interplays financial record), and when the moment is right, sue Interplay (which looks more and more like a terminal cancer patient smoking some really strong pot, having visions of healing) and take the rest of the license, and a partially done game for free (think of the money Beth can save), which than can called also yours, as nobody has even seen a concept art from it. Seriously Beth should have been a law firm. But then maybe I am paranoid I mean there is no way that Pete could be this evil and twisted
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I haven't read anywhere that Beth would be able to take anything Interplay has made so far. All in all it might be better for the game and Interplay if it isn't Fallout. Interplay gains all creative control, and doesn't have to share in profits.

Regardless, with some creative accounting I'll bet they can show $30 million. Hell, that engine from Masthead is probably worth about 25 mill right? ;)
 
Ugh.

1. Interplay was never going to actually succeed in making another Fallout game, let alone a MMORPG.

2. Even if they did, it would unavoidably suck donkey balls.

3. The Fallout horse died years ago, this is just the corpse getting another beating.
 
Nah, my guess is that they would contract out the game to some other studio, like they did with the Star Trek games. Keep in mind that MMOs are not what they "do best" and as such, not likely something that we'll see them develop, at least not with current staff.
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Keep in mind that they have not so long ago set up a MMORPG studio of their own, ZeniMax Online.
 
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