Gamasutra has word that Bethesda Softworks, the creators of Oblivion, and the upcoming Fallout 3, have purchased the Fallout IP from Interplay for a sum of 5.75 million dollars. Previously, Bethesda had been licensing the IP from Interplay, but since Interplay has repeatedly screwed the pooch on attempts to recapitalize upon the IP, it's probably for the best that it is taken off of their hands.

Interplay will remain a licensee of the IP so that they can create a Fallout MMO, of which there has been absolutely no work completed so far. Under the terms of the agreement, Interplay plans to start work within the next two years, but considering they've sat on one of the most beloved franchises in the history of PC gaming for almost a decade with only lame spin-offs and horrid console ports to show for it, we're not holding out a lot of hope that they can ever make this MMO thing happen.

Is this good news? Will Bethesda turn the Fallout mythos into an Oblivion-esque, gigantic, free form world where one is free to do as they please, or will they totally botch it, creating a boring, infinitely dull, Oblivion-esque wasteland of good intentions?