A rumor regarding the upcoming Fallout MMORPG which is currently in development by Interplay studios has surfaced, indicating that Bethesda is planning on muscling in and putting an end to the project.
According to Kotaku, a financial report was filled yesterday indicating that Interplay is likely to soon lose the rights to the Fallout MMO.
Apparently, Bethesda, who recently released the award winning Fallout 3, is behind the imminent action. While Bethesda own the full rights to Fallout, they did not purchase the rights to a Fallout MMO, which Interplay happily picked up.
The two companies went ahead and signed a shared licensing agreement, allowing Bethesda to work with the Fallout brand within the parameters of the single player franchise and Interplay to develop the Fallout MMO. As far as the basic agreement goes, Interplay has done nothing wrong. However, Bethesda is disputing that two of the primary clauses contained within the agreement have not been satisfied.
The first clause apparently states that Interplay must have begun “full-scale” work on the project by April 2004, and the second clause states that the developer must have already secured financial backing for the project. According to Bethesda, neither of these two clauses have been met, and they are therefore considering terminating the trade mark agreement that currently grants Interplay the rights to the Fallout MMO.
In the meantime, Interplay has not even announced an official Fallout MMO, but is working on an MMO codenamed “Project V13”, which is more than likely the game in question. Interplay is currently denying all claims regarding the legal action, as well as its failure to comply with clauses in the trade mark sharing agreement. Bethesda had not commented on the issue at the time of publication.
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