Court Drama

[POOPERSCOOPER]

<strong>[ Company -> Article ]</strong> - News related to <a href="http://www.duckandcover.cx/archives.php ... y=116">Top Story: I Dream of Rain</a>

<p>So Ausir alerted me about some court drama between Interplay and Bethesda yesterday and it's pretty intense stuff. Here is the stuff I copied from RPGcodex;</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>The breach of contract claims asserted by Interplay (...) fail because Bethesda is not obligated or under any legal duty to allow Interplay to utilize the panoply of Fallout assets in connection with an MMOG. Interplay transferred its right, title and interest in and to all Fallout Intellectual Property to Bethesda for $5.75 million. This included, among other rights and properties, all characters, story lines, weapons, art and other game related assets as well as the copyright and trademark registrations that protect same. (...) In the APA, Interplay further represented and warranted that any and all Fallout game assets that it owned were being transferred to Bethesda.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>[...]</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Interplay&rsquo;s use of Bethesda&rsquo;s Fallout intellectual property such as characters, weapons, and story lines was not a &ldquo;benefit of its bargain&rdquo; as Interplay claims. The only bargain Interplay made for a MMOG was the conditional right to use the FALLOUT trademark.</em></p>
<p>So basically Bethesda is sayign that Interplay can't use any Fallout material besides the name. You can read the full document of stuff <a href="http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog ... name">here at ausirs playground.</a></p><p>Spotted @ <a href="http://fallout.wikia.com">The Vault</a></p>

[GerryG]

Thanks for this info. Been looking for this for a while. BTW, I just registered

[Manoil]

I'm going to be absolutely honest with you, and tell you that I don't trust you, I think you're either a phone salesman or a cakester alt, and that the emoticon was unwarranted.

[Cimmerian Nights]

The longer Interplay sticks around, no matter how insolvent and unproductive, I can't help but think they're going to come out in some way better than before. (Not that it gives me any hope for a Fallout MMO or whatever they're working on).

Granted, nothing good can come out of Interplay. But how many times have we seen the buzzards circling over Herve's fetid, bloated, maggot-ridden carcass, only to have him somehow claw and scrape his way out.

Bethesda should've never given him any daylight. In a sick kind of way, you have to admire the slimy way Herve's been able to survive. Interplay is held together by duct tape and bubble gum, have to be up to their eye-balls in debt, yet they still carry on (doing what I don't know).

I know Zenimax' pockets are pretty deep, so they can draw the legal proceedings out ad infinitum, but to what end?


And the silly thing about all this is - I don't think there's anything really inherently great about the Fallout license when it's in either of their hands - be it FOBOS, Oblivion with Guns whatever. I'm not interested in a Fallout game from either company.

It's not the license that's valuable to me, it's the original devs and designers that made it a valuable commodity, and none of them work on it anymore, so why should I give a fuck who wins?
They're fighting to see who can put a name on a box, when it's going to be the same shallow crap inside.

Fuck 'em both.
They deserve each other.

[Alister McFap II Esq.]

buzzards circling over Herve's fetid, bloated, maggot-ridden carcass

the slimy way Herve's been able to survive

held together by duct tape and bubble gum

Interplay's got the whole post apoc thing down quite well.

[Tofu Man]

(...)And the silly thing about all this is - I don't think there's anything really inherently great about the Fallout license when it's in either of their hands - be it FOBOS, Oblivion with Guns whatever. I'm not interested in a Fallout game from either company.(...)

Totally agreed, but then what do we have that's worth keeping an eye out for? Cain to get his funk on his Wasteland license and... uh... what else? Anyone? (and yes that is a serious question, anything at all?)


Still might surprise me (and others) to find that unlike the game (which we already know is going to suck major monkey balls), this supposed new skyrimjob engine isn't total shite (or at least that it isn't gamebryo-shite) and better suited for a fallout FPS. Given the choice we have right now, I wouldn't totally dislike that, as saturated with imbecilic shoot-shoot-BOOMWOWOMG HERE'S LIKE TOTALLY AWESOME SETPIECE WITH NO ACTUAL GAMEPLAY-shoot-shoot mechanics as I am.

At least I still have System Shock 2 to look forward to, unlike you lot.

[Cimmerian Nights]

Totally agreed, but then what do we have that's worth keeping an eye out for? Cain to get his funk on his Wasteland license and... uh... what else? Anyone? (and yes that is a serious question, anything at all?)

Age of Decadence.

Maybe.

Someday?

Please.

Something.

Anything.



Is this thing on?

[Tofu Man]

Age of Decadence.

That actually looks great, hadn't heard of that one.
But wait, that's the same company that's making the zombie RPG??

Crap. At this point a flash flood, a hurricane or even a bunny epidemic might very well wipe out the RPG for good. I hope they aren't based in Australia.

[SenisterDenister]

Dead State, that's the zombie RPG that's looking pretty damn good so far.

[Cimmerian Nights]

Age of Decadence.

That actually looks great, hadn't heard of that one.
But wait, that's the same company that's making the zombie RPG??

No, Iron Tower is a little indy developer, and this is their first and only game so far. Very small group. Led by VD who was der fuhrer over at the RPG Codex before they fell into decline swell guy.

The guy know his shit, whether he can translate that into a compelling RPG remains to be seen. Been working on it for a few years now...

[Blargh]

I can confirm that there is overlap between the teams of Age of Decadence and Dead State. Shocking. I can only hope that this body lasts beyond their release dates.

An uncontested shame about Cyclopean. Yes.

[Cimmerian Nights]

I guess I gave up following AoD's development like 2 years ago...