Interplay says Bethesda turned down chance to purchase Fallout MMO

Because you're a negotiating expert on matters like this?

What experience do you base your conclusions on?

Sigh.

People just log on, say anything, then go troll other responses. It's getting beyond sad.

@Philip

No, but because startup MMOs like APB which cost $100 million to develop, and then bottom out, causing bankruptcy and hundreds of lost jobs is something I think anyone within a company with common sense wants to avoid.

Not to mention, Bethesda has already stated they're on the fence about MMO development.

So yes, $50 million is too high for Bethesda.

@Philip

Considering the budget of most MMOs, 50 million seems a bit high. Remember, this is just for the rights to make it. That didn't include any code or assets beyond maybe some concept art and the lore behind the FO series. There was absolutely no way to predict of the FO series had the backing from the fans to justify 50 million dollars for merely the idea of an MMO. After all, Bethesda easily could have created a post apocalyptic MMO on their own using similar ideas, just without the FO name. And they could have done it with 0 dollars investment.

i just wonder about the term 'full rights' because i really don't see interplay giving up the ability to milk the cow again down the road.......maybe "full rights for this project', and almost always there are little legal catch 22 phrases in any of these deals and these phrases need to be as vague as possible allowing them to sue each other for breach of contract to try to get something for nothing, they all want something for nothing. Hhmm, just like there players.

also the 50mill would have been in 03/04 when they bought the rest of the IP rights
and that was before MMO's were mainstream

50 mil today probably wouldn't be as big an issue as it would sell like hotcakes but backthen it would have been a huge risk involved

It's not disclosed how much they paid. 50 mil was just the price including the MMO rights, not just for the MMO rights.

They may have paid 49.9 mil for everything but the MMO rights, not likely, but you have no idea.

read the post (POST, not reply) below yours. it was $50 mill for the whole shebang. 44 mill just for the mmo is a bit much, but 6 mill for the single player element is way to low.

25 mill for each is a bit more reasonable but Herve was probably thinking of all that sweet, sweet Everquest money as this was before WoW took over and demonstrated just how little room there is at the top of the MMO food chain.

the funny thing is that by today's dollar value and the bloom of the video game industry as a whole, Fallout (the whole IP) would probably be worth 500 mill at the least.

Not really Especially since you then have to add development cost's on-top of that

plus they technically bought the IP already for 6mil(i think), Interplay had some clause in the sale to actually make it but they had to commence within 2 years of the sale and then have the product finished within 4 years after commencement, with bethesda getting a cut of sales and subscriptions from memory

also i assume the sales pitch was when Bethesda bought the IP around 2003 before MMO's had really started to hit mainstream. i mean even WoW hadn't released at that point

the key thing to all this is that Beth-soft (aka Zenimax) didn't hold up their side of the deal well before Interplay fumbled their technicality.

truth be told, the main reason interplay didn't (technically) make the 2 years to drum up the necessary capital (they did it in something like 2.3) was because Zenimax was actively trying to undercut their ability to do so. I'm pretty sure the corporate sharks figured why pay 50 mill, when we can just pay for the SP and then get the online bit for free when interplay implodes.

interplay didn't implode, so Zenimax started trying to make them implode, and now the judge is favoring interplay.

"Do you honestly think women are going to play an MMO where you heal yourself by drinking radioactive water out of a urinal?"

As a female gamer, an MMO fiend, and someone currently working towards a 1550 gamerscore on Fallout 3 (love it so much I have both the PC and 360 version), I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you're wrong about this particular point.


Although, to be frank, this entire comment smells like it came from under a bridge that goats were trying to cross recently.

This made me laugh.

not to promote off-topicness or anything, but you can always ask on their site to see if you can get an invite. And if I'm ever online, I don't mind helping. Currently 14 lvls deep into Prophecies, but I don't mind going back and helping through it, or through other campaigns as well (though I still need to start up the Nightfall and Faction ones).
names Deathbringer Seishi


back on topic, I don't mind the thought of a Fallout MMO, but lets keep it out of Bethesda. Fallout "3" and Vegas are alright, but they are a little too strongly pushed towards the Elder Scrolls style. Since there is rumors of an Elder Scroll MMO, Bethesda doesn't need the Fallout one as well, I'd fear both would turn out more like Cryptic's usual fair (reusing the same engine with minimal graphical swaps). They'd probably end up playing far too similarly.