Judge Allows Interplay To Publish “Fallout Trilogy” and Continue Work on Project V13

Bethesda Softworks, who developed Fallout 3, has lost its attempt to stop Interplay from selling Fallout games, and as a result, could face competition from another Fallout game.

Interplay developed the original Fallout back in 1997, but in 2007 it sold the Fallout license for US $5.75 million to Bethesda, who went on to develop the hugely successful Fallout 3.

Interplay still owns the rights to Fallout (1997), Fallout 2 (1998) and Fallout Tactics (2001), but recently garnered Bethesda’s ire over the packaging to the Fallout Trilogy, which Bethesda says is too similar to the packaging for Fallout 3 and so might mislead consumers into thinking it contained said game.

However, as reported by Gamasutra, a US District Court judge has ruled that a preliminary injunction request intended to prevent Interplay from continuing development on their Fallout MMO and from selling their Fallout Trilogy was denied. The ruling is a blow to Bethesda’s ongoing lawsuit against Interplay, who will be allowed to sell their Fallout Trilogy package, and more importantly, to continue the development of a rival Fallout game during the course of the lawsuit.

Interestingly, although the 2007 deal granted Bethesda with the right to develop Fallout and new Fallout content, it left Interplay with the rights to develop a MMO Fallout game. Bethesda claimed that Interplay had failed to meet the criteria for developing this game (the contract specified that the MMO had to begin development by 4th April 2009), but this new ruling paves the way for Interplay to release an entirely new Fallout MMO.





Could this lead to two rival Fallouts?

Let us know what you think, and continue to follow Terminal Gamer for Fallout-related news.