Bethesda sues Interplay over Fallout

According to published reports, Bethesda Softworks is not happy with Interplay over Fallout. So unhappy in fact that it has decided to sue them. According to this Gamasutra report, Bethesda filed a complaint in U.S. District Court of Maryland earlier this month in an attempt to restrict Interplay from selling older titles like Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics. Interplay sold the rights to the Fallout brand to Bethesda.

The problem stems from Interplay selling that trio of games under the name “Fallout Trilogy,” which irks Bethesda, who happen to make the third game, Fallout 3. Interplay was previously allowed to sell the older games it created (Fallout 1, 2 and the spin-off Fallout Tactics), but Bethesda alleges in court that it want to put a stop to it because Interplay did not seek prior approval for packaging and marketing the game package.

Bethesda also alleges a breach of contract over an agreement with Interplay to develop a massively multiplayer online game based on the Fallout license. Under the terms of that deal, Interplay was required to find $30 million USD in funding and then begin development of the game by April of this year. This did not happen in the timeframe agreed to, says Bethesda.

We’ll follow this story as it continues to develop.

Fallout 3 PS3 DLC .. in September?!?

I’m not as outraged as the title might lead you to believe about this, but then again, I’m not playing Fallout 3 on the PlayStation 3. According to a blog post by Ashley Cheng, a producer at Bethesda Game Studios, the first downloadable content won’t be out until sometime in September. Today sure is shaping up to be a series of disappointments for gamers.

“So when can you expect Fallout 3 DLC? We are knee deep in testing at the moment, and we’re hoping to have the first DLC out by the end of September. That long? Keep in mind that not only do we need to test each DLC on PS3, we also need to test each DLC when used in conjunction with each of the other DLC, as well as all of them together, along with the entire original game.”

The good news for PS3 Fallout owners is that they may get the DLC in the order they want it. For instance, Broken Steel, which Bethesda says is the most requested of the pack, will be the first one to be released. Broken Steel requires players to finish the main storyline and raises the level cap considerably, so it makes sense to release it first. After Broken Steel, Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt will be released “shortly thereafter” with Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta coming “as soon as they can.”

Daggerfall for free

Bethesda’s classic and much adored CRPG, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, is now available as a free download from Bethesda. Of course abandonware sites have been offering it for free of charge for over a decade, but consider this an official distribution. Daggerfall in its day was a breakthrough for the role-playing genre - but more importantly - it helped shape what the Elder Scrolls series has evolved into over the years.

You can download all the files you need directly from www.elderscrolls.com. This is an old DOS game from 1996 so you may need to download an emulator to get it to work - but Bethesda is offering all that at the link above anyone, so enjoy!

BioShock & Oblivion bundle in July

2K Games and Bethesda Softworks are teaming up to bring a double dose of award winning games to the PC and Xbox 360. A new retail package will be released on July 7 offering The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from Bethesda Softworks and 2K Boston’s BioShock in one box. Dubbed the BioShock & The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Bundle, this new release will sell for $39.99 on Xbox 360 and $29.99 for Windows PCs.

If you don’t own either one of these games, this is a pretty decent value, though it doesn’t appear to contain the downloadable content for Oblivion on either platform. If you already own both of these games, you’re not missing out on anything here.

The BioShock & The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Bundle is rated M by the ESRB. For more information on BioShock check out www.bioshockgame.com. For more information on Oblivion visit www.elderscrolls.com.

Splash Damage project revealed as ‘Brink’

If you have been speculating on what developer Splash Damage has been working on for Bethesda, you need not imagine anymore: the company is working on a first-person shooter called Brink. Earlier this month Bethesda’s European managing director Sean Brennan hinted that Splash Damage’s current project was a shorter, which makes sense considering the company’s pedigree with the genre (the company did the heavy lifting on both Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars) . Details are still razor thin but a video recently released promo hints at a science fiction themed storyline.

Given Splash Damage’s particular expertise with multiplayer first-person shooters, one could guess that this game will put a heavy emphasis on some interesting multiplayer modes that are different from what is currently out there now.

Brink will be released in Spring 2010 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. No doubt /Bethesda will be showing off the game later this week at E3.

Obsidian Taking Fallout to Vegas

At a press conference earlier today in London, Bethesda surprised everyone by announcing that there will be a new Fallout game releasing in 2010. The game, called Fallout: New Vegas, is not a direct sequel to Fallout 3 and will not be developed by Bethesda. Instead, this time around we’ll be seeing the vision of Obsidian Entertainment, which you may remember as Black Isle - the original developers of Fallout 2.

Pete Hines, VP of Marketing and PR for Bethesda, had very few details about the project other than the fact that it’s neither a sequel nor alternate game type: New Vegas will be an RPG. “It’s not a sequel to Fallout 3, it’s just another game in the universe, and it has no impact whatsoever on whatever Todd Howard [long-time designer/producer at Bethesda] and his team are working on,” said Hines. Of the limited details available, Hines did comment that the game is targeted for release on PC, 360 and PS3 in 2010.

Bethesda Reclaiming Fallout MMO Rights

Bethesda has filed with the U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission to reacquire the rights it licensed to Interplay when it bought the Fallout brand from the company. Part of that 2007 deal gave Interplay the right to create a Fallout MMO - provided that it met certain conditions. The SEC filing contends that Interplay has not met those conditions, and is therefore no longer entitled to license anything from them.

The agreement was contingent on Interplay meeting milestones: the company was to enter general production on the game within two years and raise capital to support its continued development. That never happened, despite some progress on a product codenamed Project V13 (which everyone surmised was an online Fallout game), Bethesda apparently feels that Interplay has hit the end of the road with them.

We’ll have more on this story as it develops.

thanks No Mutants Allowed