Bethesda: no comment

Mr. Teatime · Post by **Mr. Teatime** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 2:44 pm

[Game -> Update]

Unsurprisingly, in response to my questions about how a liquidation of Interplay - which is still to happen - would affect <a href="http://www.bethesda.com">Bethesda</a>, the response from Pete Hines was 'no comment'. To be precise,<blockquote>We don't have any comment on the status of another company or our arrangements with them. We are developing Fallout 3 and when we have information on the game and what we're up to, we'll let folks know. Beyond that, we have no comment.</blockquote>I also asked about whether the company owns the single player part of the Fallout licence or whether it is leased in some form from Interplay:<blockquote>we don't comment publicly on the details of our contracts and such.</blockquote>I'd speculate that there would be some protection from Interplay's possible liquidation, as most people can see the company is on very dangerous ground.

Mr. Teatime · Post by **Mr. Teatime** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 6:14 pm

<a href="http://www.gamegossip.com/pressrelease. ... 57">here's the original press release</a>.

"Bethesda licensed the rights to the Fallout franchise from Interplay Entertainment Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: IPLY) in a deal that awards Bethesda exclusive worldwide rights to the Fallout franchise on the PC, home consoles, handhelds, and other media, with the option to develop and publish additional sequels."

I'm trying to work it out, whether this means Bethsoft would be unaffected by Interplay's death. I guess it's left unclear.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 8:04 pm

Interplay will surely die, but the license won't, the rights to the Fallout universe will get transfered to another owner, and the contract Bethesda made with Interplay will still be valid, only the Interplay name won't appear anymore, it'll be someone else. I guess the new owner could still go to court and get the contract to be declared obsolete, but it'd be a long and expensive process.

All in all, I'd say Bethesda will still develop FO3.

Post by **Alexander** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:31 pm

"we plan to develop a visually stunning and original game for Fallout 3" - Todd Howard

Ha Ha! "Visually stunning" usually means 3D nowadays. ...

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:34 pm

No shit, who still thought FO3 would be 2D?

Post by **Alexander** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 11:45 pm

It doesn't matter, well I didn't think it would even though I hoped it would be in 2D, mostly because I don't like change very much... But still eventhough pre-rendered 2D rpg was really good and set the mood of messy post-apoc environments more easily and nicely then 3d ever would be able to do at the time.
But that was 7 years ago and now 3D graphics are much better, just look at STALKER, Half-Life 2(yes, I know everybody here hates the peice of shit, but you cant deny that it looks good) and other games that are coming out.
Besides, I don't know what you people thought of SW: Knights of the Old Republic, but it looked as if it proved (at least to me) that 3D-rpg is not entirely worthless and pretentious... And by the time FO3 will(if) released the technology of 3d engines will have moved up to new heights so who knows how this will end up anyways...

Sovy Kurosei · Post by **Sovy Kurosei** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 6:01 am

We are developing Fallout 3 and when we have information on the game and what we're up to, we'll let folks know.

Does this mean that Bethesda have actual staff working on Fallout 3, or are they still saying it is in the "pre-production" stage?

PsychoSniper · Post by **PsychoSniper** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 7:09 am

They simply wont say shit, as usual.

Remember though, Pete wouldnt even confirm that they would keep to the canon storyline.

Hey, since they wont say shit, why not start making up stories on them ?

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 2:43 pm

It's been 6 years we're starting stories on people becauseo f Fallout.

swordinstone · Post by **swordinstone** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 12:47 am

Dont look for Fallout 3 until Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is nearing completion.

It will be worth the wait

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 1:08 am

We'll probably get to see it before Project Phoenix.

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 7:51 am

Damn...

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:20 pm

Any news on that front?

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 10:10 pm

Unfortunately no. Well fine... the orginal PP as we all talked about it is on the back burner and we're going with a much smaller game in the hopes of being able to self fund it through to completion rather than fish for funding. A rather dumb-ass acquaintance led us down a path we thought WAS towards private funding and it turned out the person WAS interested in software, just not games.

SO...yea nothing yet but we're still staying in the genre and hoping for a 15 - 20 hour experience we can complete in about a year. Since you guys seem to be up and running now here anyway, I'll of course keep you abreast of developement WHEN there's something substantial.

Cheers

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:00 pm

Same engine and everything with a shorter play time, or is it a totally new game?

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:49 pm

Same everything more or less just more compact. Shorter play time, tighter character development and less 'tactical' combat. The logic there is if you guys wanted a tactical combat game, you'd be playing SS or JA ad nauseum, and though I personally love tact. games, they also can drag on and on. So instead of dedicating my time to an insanely complex tact game, I'm spending that time on everything else, not too different from PP, just descoped. In other words, less complex combat ( from a tactics POV ) and pretty much the same execution in story and out-of-combat gameplay( dialogue and world/object interaction ), just shorter.

Cheers

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 12:09 am

So...you're making a FOBOS clone?

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 12:32 am

Dont be silly...oh wait....yea, nevermind...thats it...I think...err, thats the good one right? With that big tittied chick?

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 2:34 am

Can we have a screenshot and can we beta test?

EvoG · Post by **EvoG** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 11:22 pm

*ehem* No Comment.

Hey, that really works!

Thanks Peter Hines!