If you've only been paying attention to the gaming side of Fallout you're missing the most exciting part! Screw the games, legal action is where it is at and the two companies behind Fallout, Bethesda (who bought out the franchise) and Interplay (who created the franchise), are all up in it. Bethesda has sued Interplay over breach of contract since they claim Interplay failed to produce a Fallout MMO within the set amount of time that they agreed to.
It's probably very complicated, but basically both companies are angry at each other, and we've just got details on Interplay's response to Bethesda's lawsuit and the fact that they are countersuing Bethesda for being big dicks. Interplay stockholder frymuchan gives everyone his entirely biased lowdown on what is going on, but if we dig through his Fox News level of bias we can gain some interesting things from this. The first being that Interplay has requested and received a ten day extension in order to look over Bethesda's suit in more detail.
However, they have already come to some conclusions about it, and according to them Bethesda is totally wrong about everything and Interplay has in no way breached their contract. Interplay believes that Bethesda's interference in their digital download licensing deal constitutes unreasonable interference/withholding of permission as their contract states. They also feel that Bethesda's actions have hurt Interplay and are thus suing them over damages caused by Bethesda terminating the Interplay-Glutton Creeper Fallout PnP contract and damages caused to Interplay's reputation and finances by Bethesda sending letters to GameTap and other companies claiming Interplay had no right to sell Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics via these services. Since Interplay believes this to be true they are arguing that Bethesda is in fact the one who is in breach of contract and that makes the license sale null and void, therefore bringing the former contract (the sub-licensing deal for Fallout 3 with options on 4 and 5 only) back into effect.
In short both companies say the other company is a meany and a doo doo face. Of course when millions of dollars are up in the air figuring out which company is the biggest stupid head is really important.
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Contest:
10:00 PM on 10.17.2009
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Translation:
Bethesda has sued Interplay over breach of contract since they claim Interplay decided that testing and optimizing were necessary to produce a product that actually fucking works, thus causing them to miss Bethesda's deadline, which did not allocate time for those steps of the development cycle.
You don't know how it works in the biz. Beth probably set up some milestones and Interplay probably failed to meet many of them.
Bethesda is like a whiny baby that needs to get whiped by its elder
Interplay was given 2 years from the date of their agreement with Bethesda to start production on the Fallout MMO and secure the $30 million in funding required for the game. Interplay failed to do this. It's a pretty cut and dry case if you ask me.
I like Interplay but they broke their agreement.
but in the end, interplay has more going for it as a developer. humour and a keen wit for instance. of course, this opinion is completely irrelevant from the issue at hand...
...yup. that's it from me.
That was the Interplay of 10 years ago, the Interplay of today is five people sitting in an office trying to figure out which lawyer has the better plan to keep them in business another year.
I'm not sure who has the more "moral" case in this suit, it sounds like Bethesda to me but I am not an expert at all, but I know it doesn't matter. Interplay has no resources and Bethesda's parent company Zenimax is a monster... they will destroy Interplay in court, and they were more than likely smart enough to make sure these contracts were written in a way that secured their position.
While I would love to see more games like Interplay released in the 90s, that's never going to happen from the Interplay of today. Better for Bethesda to eradiacte them, really.
"the Interplay of today is five people sitting in an office trying to figure out which lawyer has the better plan to keep them in business another year. "
"While I would love to see more games like Interplay released in the 90s, that's never going to happen from the Interplay of today."
But, don't they have a bunch of upcoming sequels? A new Earthworm Jim? Another MDK? Another Descent? If these games actually happen, that could really open some new doors. Which is why I completely disagree with, "Better for Bethesda to eradiacte them, really."
I don't think Interplay is just 5 guys.
Besides, I don't know dick about the internals, but from my POV Interplay have been eradicating themselves since the early 2000s, both closing their best studios and selling their ivy licenses. That, and the fact that what has transpired in the past about the license deal is basically what Bethesda claims now, makes me think Interplay may have the downside in this.
Interplay have long since lost any credibility as a games developer, it just surprises me that Bethseda expected any different from them.
They have published/developed the best WRPGs that exist!
What is left of Black Isle became Obsidian. They're working for Bethesda to make Fallout: New Vegas.
The fact that anyone is taking Interplay's side is astounding to me, you'd have to be completely ignorant of the situation to think Interplay has any legs to stand on. The idea that Bethesda "didn't give them enough time to bug test" is baseless, but even if it weren't (there's no way the game is anywhere near complete enough for polishing), it still wouldn't matter. If the contract didn't allow for enough time to make a game, Interplay shouldn't have signed it in the first place.
But they did, because they needed the money. Which is also why they haven't completed enough of the game to live up to the contract, and now they're crying over the sour grapes. They've been reduced to operating at a slumlord level, and Bethesda has more than enough lawyers to do something about it.