Interplay plans Fallout MMO

By Robert Purchese Published 15 August, 2007

Will revitalise publisher.

Resurgent US publisher Interplay has said it is working on Fallout Online, a game that will play a key role in its future plans.

The comments were made in a money-matters talk by big cheese Harvey Caen, who boasted double the amount of profits over this time last year.

"With that difficult period behind us, we are focused on securing funding for development of a Massively Multiplayer Online Game based on the popular Fallout franchise," said Caen in a statement.

"Along with our strategy of leveraging our existing portfolio of intellectual gaming properties, Fallout Online will play a key role in the future of Interplay."

Nearly all of the increased cash intake by the publisher was made by selling the majority of the Fallout licence to Oblivion creator Bethesda earlier in the year.

It isn't yet clear which platforms Caen has in mind for the MMO, or who will be handling development. Interplay was responsible for the original Fallout game made by Black Isle Studios in 1997.

Head over to our Fallout 3 gamepage to see how Bethesda's take is shaping up.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Hunam #1 5 years ago

    I find it hilarious that a series which interplay wrote off, and then commissioned crappy licences for is now the one game in which they want to save them. Yet the core audience of Fallout wants nothing to do with them.

    I see bad things happening.

  • Genji #2 5 years ago

    Millions of people running around a post-apocalyptic wasteland... something just seems wrong there.

  • WinstonChurchill #3 5 years ago

    This is fundamentally wrong.

  • Genji #4 5 years ago

    "Yet the core audience of Fallout wants nothing to do with them."

    Heh, but the core audience of Fallout wants nothing to do with anyone. Go to NMA or the Bethesda Fallout forums to get a taste.

    ;-)

  • Lutz #5 5 years ago

    When did Interplay resurrect?

    And more importantly; why are there no plans for FreeSpace 3?

    Oh, that's right, you gave away the rights to DEREK SMART!

    /golf clap

  • Hunam #6 5 years ago

    @Genji: I can't see millions of people playing it :p

  • Rayn #7 5 years ago

    @ Hunman
    Interplay didn't write off Fallout. When they sold the name it was for the singleplayer version(s) only. That they're toying with an MMO based on the Fallout universe has been mentioned by a Interplay spokesperson more than two years ago so this isn't exactly news.

  • Genji #8 5 years ago

    "I can't see millions of people playing it :p"

    At least the setting will be authentic, then!

    :-D

  • tigernuts #9 5 years ago

    "And more importantly; why are there no plans for FreeSpace 3?

    Oh, that's right, you gave away the rights to DEREK SMART! "

    Yikes! I did not know this. I wish I did not know this.

  • Xiaokiraa #10 5 years ago

    Is there any real news this week?

  • Lutz #11 5 years ago

    @tigernuts:

    Actually, I'm not 100% sure he's got them, but there's a good chance that he has.

  • Hunam #12 5 years ago

    @Ryan: I'm aware of the long standing plans for fallout MMO, but they ignored the calls for Fallout 3 for year before they started and then cancelled it.

  • bengray66 #13 5 years ago

    Some games just arn't meant to be toyed with. This is one of them. I've got one eye on Fallout 3, but only because of Bethesda, Some of th screen shots look poor, and im not really convinced that this wont be like Oblivion with guns.

    Why cant they just let us enjoy and remember Fallout and Fallout 2 as they were? Gems!

  • Genji #14 5 years ago

    "Is there any real news this week?"

    Well, the President of the United States was arrested for cutting up a prostitute... oh wait, you meant real real news.

    Sorry.

  • hjarg #15 5 years ago

    [link url=http://www.somethingawful. com/d/weekend-web/fallout-scarleteen-armenianclub.php?page=1
    ]http://ww w.somethingawful.com/d/weekend-...[/link]

    This is the best descrition of core audience of Fallout 3. If there weren't nice people like me who also want F3, then i'd say stop the project totally and instead youtube Beth burning F3 licence and disks... just to the core audience to explode from rage.

    As for MMO... are whorehouses in the game? Or can you big a big shiny star of the porn industry? Or is it just killing rats in the wastelands?

  • Rayn #16 5 years ago

    @Hunman
    I wouldn't say Interplay ignored the calls for another Fallout sequel. Interplay was one of many companies that struggled financially at the time as the industry was going through a timeshift. After the release of the two original Fallout games Sony had taken the world with storm with their PSone and MS announced their Xbox project.
    A lot of devcos got confused by this and some made some bad calls ending up in bad sponsorship deals and a lack of general funds. The sellout of Fallout was more an act of survival than giving up on it. Interplay lost a lot of employees who jumped ship to go work on newer and/or more promising projects and they simply refused to gamble on its success with a lack of money as well as an incomplete dev team.
    I'm also quite confident that the franchise could've landed in far more wrong hands than Bethesda.
    As a fan of the Fallout games (even the Tactics one) I've been quite reserved to what Bethesda would come up with but reading up on their progress lately I've now got Fallout 3 pinned as one of my most wanted games of 2008.
    Edited by 1 at 15/08/07 @ 12:10

  • JunglistVIP #17 5 years ago

    @Xiaokiraa

    http://ww w.break.com/index/how-to-break-...

  • Hunam #18 5 years ago

    @Ryan: I used to belong to the Fallout collective myself, who actually did some fantastic research into the problems at Interplay.

    But now they are a mockery of themselves, it's almost cool to be an angry Fallout fanboy (see that moron at cad-comics) but Fallout 3 looks very promising, but Interplay have shown they have no idea what made fallout so great and i doubt the MMO will be worth anything.

  • buzz #19 5 years ago

    @hjarg

    What the merry hell is that all about, holy moly pudding and pie! So much emo drama in there, amazing. I fear I'm missing out. What should I google to get up to speed?

  • Xiaokiraa #20 5 years ago

    Thanks Jungle, best news I've heard all week!

  • hjarg #21 5 years ago

    google: No Mutants Allowed
    There are nice bunch of people convinced Bethseda is the devil's official representitive on Earth and that Lucifer himself has given Beth orders to destroy the Fallout franchise. And that is putting it mildly!

  • mkreku #22 5 years ago

    "The comments were made in a money-matters talk by big cheese Harvey Caen, who boasted double the amount of profits over this time last year."

    His name is Hervé Caen.

  • Dr.Gash #23 5 years ago

    So, Interplay are still in debt by 3 million dollars, are relying on an IP they haven't touched in 3 years (which never actually managed to reclaim the greatness of the first game) and are required to raise $30 M dollars in funding before April 2009 if they even want to hold on to the project? And if they do manage to get the funding and release within four years of the start of development, they have to pay 12% of their profits to Betheda?

    Back on top, baby.

  • PearOfAnguish #24 5 years ago

    ""Yet the core audience of Fallout wants nothing to do with them."

    Heh, but the core audience of Fallout wants nothing to do with anyone. Go to NMA or the Bethesda Fallout forums to get a taste. "

    Indeed. I think the best thing for all involved would be to ignore anything the rabid Fallout fans say.

    "Oh, that's right, you gave away the rights to DEREK SMART!"

    Jeeping shit.

    So in about five years time we'll get a half-finished FreeSpace 3 with 10-year old visuals.

  • zoidberg #25 5 years ago

    FREESPACE WOULD KICK ASS

  • Bennicus #26 5 years ago

    "Along with our strategy of leveraging our existing portfolio of intellectual gaming properties, Fallout Online will play a key role in the future of Interplay."

    This sounds like it will be an amazing game!1

  • Guv #27 5 years ago

    As much as I would love a post apocalyptic MMO (and to have the time to play it) and love the Fallout games, I'm wondering if this is the right way to go...

  • Orange #28 5 years ago

    Broke my gaming heart when that warped little c**t announced that he now owned the FreeSpace 3 rights.

    I can only hope someone else buys them off him. I'd love to see a properly made Freespace 3 more than Fallout 3.