Fallout MMO gets help

The MMO that has been in the works from Interplay, codenamed Project V13 and almost certain to be in the Fallout universe, finally was announced in a press release on PR Newswire.

Masthead Studios, a Bulgarian company, will be “using its proprietary tools and MMOG technology” it is utilizing for another MMO called Earthrise and working jointly with an Interplay in-house development team composed mainly of former Fallout developers. Former Interplay designer Chris Taylor was brought back to assist with the project in August of last year.

Both Interplay’s and Masthead’s CEOs had some standard PR puffery in the release, and terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Interplay has slowly pulled itself back up after financial troubles between 2002-2004, but the sale of the Fallout intellectual property to Bethesda Softworks in April 2007 seems to have them on the right road. They are using money from that sale to fund the project. As late as November 2007, Interplay said it wanted to revive many of its other intellectual properties, such as Earthworm Jim, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance and Descent, and in April 2008, it confirmed that Earthworm Jim 4 was in development.

While a Fallout MMO would be incredibly popular based on the following the series has had (both good and bad), I’m skeptical that this MMO (whatever it is) will even see the light of day. The last news that Interplay had on its website was back on Aug. 23, 2008, when it announced that it had brought Taylor back and the site is advertising Sacrifice for download, a game originally released in November of 2000. Interplay’s plans seem overly ambitious given its previous financial troubles.

And Masthead, founded in 2005, has not released a game yet, although it’s site says Earthrise will be coming out sometime this year, and a trailer was just released at GDC.

I hope I am wrong and this makes it. I’d play it in a heartbeat. We’ll see.