|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 6:38 pm
![](//graphics.gaiaonline.com/images/s.gif) |
![](//graphics.gaiaonline.com/images/s.gif) |
![](//graphics.gaiaonline.com/images/s.gif) |
![](//graphics.gaiaonline.com/images/posts/say/say_b1_p.gif) |
I'm surprised that resident bethesda fanboy / crew memeber tron hasn't heard about or reported this - but there is now a lawsuit going on between Bethesda and Interplay. Luckily I'm here to explain the details and illuminate what the possible outcomes are, and how it effects your gaming!
Background History:
A little over a decade ago, Interplay was a great gaming publisher. Creators of classics like Earthworm Jim, and employers of some legendary developers like Black Isle Studio, most of the era's best CRPGs were published by Interplay. A few years pass, Interplay is owned by a new guy, and he pretty much runs the whole company into the ground. Interplay is on the verge of bankruptcy, and Bethesda wants to expand and become the next big developer. Fancying themselves as great RPG makers, they see that the legendary Fallout IP is being held by a company that is almost gone, so they offer a little over 5 Million dollars for the property. Fair enough.
Interplay asks that they can retain the right to republish the Fallout titles they made, and the rights to create an MMORPG. Interplay accepted, but either out of stupidity or desperation, the president of Iplay (he signed the contract, not a lawyer) agreed to a bunch of, for lack of a better term, bullshit clauses involving Interplay's rights in the deal.
What clauses? Well, Interplay has to amass a good amount of money (30 million) by April of 2009 for the MMO - something pretty tough for a company in position to file for bankruptcy to do. Alright, not that bad, as for rereleasing the old Fallout games, Interplay was supposed to send all marketing and packaging to Bethesda for approval before releasing the games. According to "insders" Bethesda never really intended to ever approve of any of the packaging.
Fast Forward to a few months ago.
Interplay releases the Fallout Trilogy pack in stores, as well as on direct download with services like Good old Games and Steam. Interplay also claims that they have found another company to fund an MMO called "V13" (vault 13) in April.
Fast Forward to now.
Bethesda files 2 lawsuits against Interplay, one for starting the MMO without the funding, and one for releasing the original fallout games without their approval.
The latest is that Interplay is trying to call foul play on Bethesda's part over the contract, and are also claiming that V13 isn't a Fallout MMO (even though there are nuka cola bottles in all the concept art)
What's it mean?
Well, Interplay did sign the shitty contract, so Bethesda isn't really in the wrong. It's kind of petty of Beth to sue over this stuff, considering the insane amount of money they made off of Fallout 3. So, there are a couple possible outcomes:
- Bethesda wins, and as a settlement gets money. Interplay has no money, Interplay goes bankrupt. If this were to happen, then either Interplay would sell the remaining parts of the IP to Bethesda for Bethesda to potentially rerelease, or the old games would never be sold legally, ever again.
- Bethesda will most likely be able to make their own Fallout MMO. This will probably be handled by Zenimax's new MMO studio (the studio that was opened near the same time as Fallout 3's release... quite the coincidence, eh)
- Interplay wins, somehow, and they get money out of Bethesda for damages, and they get to go full force with the MMO - highly unlikely.
So, my real concern here (I know that a fallout mmo will be dumb no matter what. Fallout isn't about being near other people, it's about the exact opposite), is that if Bethesda wins, and neither company is now legally able to rerelease the old games, the only way for them to ever be played would be via piracy or ebay. And frankly, those are classic games (well, minus tactics) that every "real" gamer should experience at some point in time.
|
![](//graphics.gaiaonline.com/images/s.gif) |
![](//graphics.gaiaonline.com/images/s.gif) |
![](//graphics.gaiaonline.com/images/s.gif) |
![](//graphics.gaiaonline.com/images/s.gif) |
|
![](//graphics.gaiaonline.com/images/template/s.gif) |
![](//graphics.gaiaonline.com/images/template/s.gif) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 3:18 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 7:53 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:59 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:19 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:19 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:23 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:05 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:39 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:43 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:57 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:40 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 6:14 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 2:12 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:08 am
|
|
|
|
|
![](//graphics.gaiaonline.com/images/template/s.gif) |
|
|
|
|
|