IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Fallout MMO Rights Were Turned Down By Bethesda

Posted October 22, 2010 by M.H. Williams

According to Interplay president Eric Caen, Bethesda Softworks had the chance to own the rights to a Fallout MMO, but declined. In an interview with Edge Magazine, Caen accused Bethesda of trying to obtain the rights without playing.

"Hervé [Caen] started negotiations with Bethesda to sell Fallout to them,” explained Eric Caen. “My brother said: 'If you want the full IP, the value of it is $50 million.' They said: 'No way. Why $50 million?' We said: 'Because the MMOG strength of this universe is huge.' Bethesda said: 'We don’t want that. Let’s buy everything else but the MMOG. Do the MMOG.' They said that Interplay had to start development and by a certain time we had to have a full game in development."

In September of 2009, Bethesda sued Interplay for breach of contract, alleging that the developer had breached their contract by not starting on development of the MMO and attempting to sell the original Fallout titles. A Maryland court denied Bethesda’s injunction in December of 2009, and the publisher appealed the decision a month later. Interplay fired back with its own counter-suit in February of 2010. Bethesda dropped their appeal in April, but Interplay still continues to pursue their counter-claim.

Caen believes Bethesda wanted to use legal strong-arming to get the rights once they realized how profitable it could be.

"They bought everything, but left Interplay with the license to do the MMOG - under certain conditions, thinking that Interplay would never fulfil these conditions. But Interplay did. Spring 2009 - this is public information - Bethesda sends a termination letter to Interplay, saying: 'You did not fulfil your obligation.' So all the litigation is about that. I think Bethesda, off the back of Fallout 3’s success, realised that Hervé was probably right about the value. They said: 'OK, how can we get that without paying?'"

M.H. Williams has been writing in some form or another for ten years and has been a hardcore gamer since the NES first graced American shores.  You can catch him on Twitter as @AutomaticZen, Google+ as himself, or on his personal Facebook page.