fallout2I have recently told you about an interesting project under development at Interplay, a Fallout MMO game: a game that’s possible because when the creators of the franchise sold the rights to Bethesda, still kept the rights for a MMO. However, lots of clauses and stipulations were in play and apparently Interplay didn’t meet them. As a result, Bethesda now wants Interplay to stop doing the Fallout MMO.

“Interplay recently received notice that Bethesda Softworks intends to terminate the trademark license agreement between Bethesda and Interplay which was entered into April 4, 2007 for the development of FALLOUT MMOG,” says an Interplay filing.

The reasons why the Fallout 3 devs are doing this is that when Bethesda and Interplay signed the deal, Interplay were required to start working on the Fallout MMO within 24 months of the signing of the project (the signing was two years ago) and secure a $30 million financing for the title. Apparently, Bethesda believes that Interplay didn’t manage to meet the demands (probably the financial ones, since the time-limit was not reached).

“Despite the fact that no formal action is currently pending, Bethesda claims that Interplay is in breach of the trademark licence agreement for failure to commence full scale development of same by April 4, 2009 and to secure certain funding for the MMOG,” Interplay’s SEC filing continues.

“Interplay adamantly disputes these claims. Although the potential damages are currently unknown, if Bethesda ultimately prevails and cancels the trademark licence agreement, Interplay would lose its licence back of the “Fallout” MMOG and any damages resulting therefrom are unknown at this time.”

One thing is clear: if a “Vault 13” MMO gets out and not a “Fallout MMO”, we’ll all know what that means, too.

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