Bethesda claims "Interplay is wrong"

By Fred Dutton Published 12 January, 2011

Fallout MMO tussle heats up.

Bethesda Softworks has hit back at Interplay's claim that the latest in a long line of attempts to derail its planned Fallout MMO was "absurd".

Earlier this week, Interplay rubbished Bethesda's claim that it had only ever licensed out one asset to Interplay: the Fallout trademark in association with an MMO, and not the characters and environments associated with it.

A new court filing from Bethesda unearthed by Gamasutra argued that the agreement between the two parties was "clear and unambiguous," and it had "no contractual or other duty" to give Interplay any assets aside from the name.

"The term 'Fallout-branded MMOG' is plain and clear on its face - it means an MMOG named 'Fallout,'" Bethesda's filing insisted. "Bethesda gave Interplay a license to call its MMOG 'Fallout' if it met the conditions of the [trademark licensing agreement]. Nothing else was licensed to Interplay.

"Interplay offers a variety of meritless arguments to suggest that the plain reading of the [trademark licensing agreement] would render the agreement meaningless. Interplay is wrong. Its arguments to the contrary should be rejected."

Bethesda also explained why it had not raised any objections earlier, claiming it had "only recently learned of Interplay's multiple infringements from Interplay's public marketing materials."

Bethesda purchased the rights to the Fallout franchise from Interplay back in 2004 for $5.75 million. It licensed the online rights back to the struggling publisher before starting development on Fallout 3 and, more recently, Fallout: New Vegas.

Interplay announced its intent to release a Fallout MMO soon after that deal was signed, with a release currently slated for 2012.

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About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • randompanda #1 1 year ago

    "The term 'Fallout-branded MMOG' is plain and clear on its face - it means an MMOG named 'Fallout"

    Er if I bought a game called Fallout, i'd expect it to contain - you know, elements of the Fallout games.

  • DanWhitehead #2 1 year ago

    Call it Doodle Edge's App Store MaXplosion. That should resolve any legal problems.

  • timewarp87 #3 1 year ago

    Any chance of these 2 corporate faceless companies burying the hatchet in the interest of gamers, the industry and the art ? How about Bethesda claiming royalties on the game, and wasnt Interplay the people who originally created the series ?
    Sounds like Bethesda are interested in the money and not the game. Bethesda should show some respect to the company that created the series in the first place, which in turn has led them to make millions from it. If Bethesda spent as much time fixing bugs in their games prior to launch as they do on a court case, I wouldnt have given up on Elder Scrolls when it became unplayable with the vampire curse that couldnt be cured unless I restarted the game. Well no more Bethesda for me. Faceless churners that are not interested in the community . Why dont they create a Fallout MMO ? Oh yeah, sorry, you've sold that right to Interplay. So Interplay can use the name and not the characters, and Bethesda can use the characters but not the name (for an MMO)

  • Lusterpurge #4 1 year ago

    I bought some Fallout labeled water a few months ago thinking that it was the official drink of the game, but all it did was make me really sick :(

  • TheeUmbrellaMan #5 1 year ago

    I'm sorry, but that's nonsense. If I went to Disney and said "here's a massive wodge of cash, I would like the licence to make a Mickey Mouse branded game please" I would be pretty miffed if they turned round years later and said I could only call it "Mickey Mouse" and wasn't allowed to use the character.

    The brand is much more than just the name (as much as typing that makes me feel like a 32-carat arsehole).

  • Lemming81 #6 1 year ago

    TheeUmbrellaman,

    Let's remeber that Interplay got 5 mill for voluntarily selling the franchise to Bethesda in the first place, yeah?

    It's not like they are victims.

    Hmm, got negged. Some NMA trolls in here, no doubt!
    Edited by Lemming81 at 12/01/11 @ 21:48

  • TheeUmbrellaMan #7 1 year ago

    Oh I don't care either way. As others said earlier, just faceless corps having a bitching contest. But they still should be called out when they spout drivel.

  • daz_john_smith #8 1 year ago

    Actually, Black Isle Studio's created Fallout, Interplay were the publisher. Most of Black Isle's employees now work at Obsidian developers of Fallout: New Vegas

  • Tmecha #9 1 year ago

    why dont both publishers cut the crap and work together. If the game is good there is money to be made for both Bethesda and interplay.

  • Katanax #10 1 year ago

    Interplay - Reverse all your textures, apply ridiculous colour filters and make it look like a cell shaded Warner Brothers cartoon. All characters should be made of ice cream and explode in a big bust of colour and streamers when defeated with the only weapon in the game - Timmy Mallets +21 Thundermallet of awesome.

    When you've significantly destroyed the Fallout brand enough by meeting all criteria Bethesda are requesting, lets see how they react then.

    For the record, I'd play it.

  • SeesThroughAll #11 1 year ago

    Oh, interesting.

    So, the only thing Bethesda licensed was the name?


    Hahahahahahahahahahaha...

  • L0cky #12 1 year ago

    I doubt the game itself is in any danger. All this is about is who is paying who and how much.

  • timewarp87 #13 1 year ago

    "In 1997, Interplay published Redneck Rampage, a first person shooter designed by Xatrix Entertainment. In the same year Interplay developed and released Fallout, a successful and critically-acclaimed role-playing game set in a retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic setting. Black Isle Studios, an in-house developer, followed with the sequel, Fallout 2, in 1998. "

  • sanctimoniousqf #14 1 year ago

    So the original publishers and owners of the Fallout IP licensed the Fallout brand, and Bethesda are claiming they had no idea that Interplay were going to be making a game set in that universe... riiiight... because obviously they have been working on a Fallout cooking MMO all these years.

    Legal trolls.

  • Nephirion #15 1 year ago

    By the time they have stopped quarrelling and actually made something the gaming world will have lost interest and moved on.

  • TheTingler #16 1 year ago

    While I don't think there's a chance in hell that Interplay can make a decent game, I'm with them on this particular argument - that IS absurd.

    However if it said that in the original agreement, they should've looked at it more closely.

  • daz_john_smith #17 1 year ago

    @timewarp87
    "Fallout is a computer role-playing game produced by Tim Cain, developed by Black Isle Studios (though before the studio was named "Black Isle";) and published by Interplay in 1997."
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Isle_Studios
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_%28computer_game%29

  • ubergine #18 1 year ago

    There's been no detail as to the assets Bethesda is on about. If it's pipboy, that's unreasonable. If it's Eden Prime or Capital Wasteland, or other Fallout 3 stuff, they have a point.

    A reasonable presumption would exist that Interplay could refer to existing Fallout lore at time of the agreement.

    Real Story: interplay cannot make Fallout Forever, Bethesda want to reunite the shard into the Fallout Crystal.

  • Sunyavadin #19 1 year ago

    If anything, the only people making Fallout games should be Black Isle.

    So just leave it in Obsidian's hands. But keep Quality Control and beta testing independent of them.

  • Spekingur #20 1 year ago

    Have any of you played Wasteland?

  • levitate #21 1 year ago

    Isn't this getting beyond ridiculous by now? The only ones gaining anything from this are the fat lawyers filling their pockets with money that should have gone to development of a new MMO in a beloved IP.

  • geeza2020 #22 1 year ago

    Too many law suits going on in the gaming industry these days....

  • YenRug #23 1 year ago

    @daz_john_smith

    You didn't just quote Wikipedia as your argument, did you? Wikipedia might be a good starting place to check something out, but you should never hold it up as proof of something; also, doesn't the opening statement automatically prove you wrong? If the development team weren't called Black Isle Studios at the time (i.e. they hadn't actually formed the company under that name), then Black Isle Studios didn't create it; the people that eventually formed Black Isle Studios might have worked on it, but BIS didn't.

  • daz_john_smith #24 1 year ago

    @Yenrug
    Yes I did, exactly like timewarp87 did
    ;P
    Just like you said Wiki isn't always the best source to quote because of slghtly differing information.

    Just because they hadn't established an individual Studio name though at the time doesn't mean they shouldn't get credit for their exceptional development work on Fallout. The studio was formed in 1996 at Interplay Entertainment under Brian Fargo and developed Fallout, but simply didn't take on the name Black Isle until 1998. It's worth knowing that what is left of Interplay today is barely a shadow of it's former self. It all went downhill when Titus started buying their stock and Brian Fargo was replaced as president.
    Edited by daz_john_smith at 13/01/11 @ 19:26