Tag: Bethesda

Interplay Circling The Drain: Project V13 In Jeopardy


Fallout Online, or Project V13, or the Fallout MMO, or “that MMO that is never being released” as it is known in my parts of the neighborhood. Whatever you call it, players have already taken sides in the Bethesda Interplay lawsuit, based on who they would rather see win and develop the Fallout MMO. To bring you up to speed, Interplay sold the rights to Fallout to Bethesda, on the terms that Interplay would retain the rights to an MMO and begin development with something to show by 2009.

In September 2009, Bethesda launched a lawsuit against Interplay to retrieve the rights to the MMO. After multiple back and forth bickering, the judge granted Interplay the right to continue working on the MMO, and last we heard (January 11th), Bethesda was trying to make the claim that they only licensed the name for Fallout, not any of the concepts (apocalypse) or characters or themes. You see, Bethesda did the licensing under the impression Interplay wouldn’t make a Fallout style shooter MMO, but instead some completely other genre of MMO, an argument that wouldn’t fool the standing judge of the county of Gullibility.

Well, much like Stargate Worlds, this MMO may come to an end simply through the art of bankruptcy. I’m guessing the sales from Fallout and Baldur’s Gate on Good Old Games aren’t doing enough to keep the cash flowing, because Interplay posted a cash balance below $3000 USD, and a capital deficit of over $3 million. They went on to note that if the financial situation doesn’t change soon, the company will either go into bankruptcy or be forced to sell off (I’m guessing to Bethesda again).

I’m not one to call doom and gloom, but if you didn’t see this coming you weren’t paying enough attention. Project V13 never had much of a chance in Interplay’s hands, being a company that can barely keep out of debt trying to pull off one of the most expensive genres of video games is a recipe for bankruptcy from day one. At this point, Cartoon Network’s Fusion Fall has a better looking financial future.

What Happened This Week: 4/24-4/30 Edition


Welcome to the second episode of Week In Review (or whatever I’m calling it this week), your look at some stories that didn’t make MMO Fallout headlines for one reason or another.

1. Bethesda’s MMO May Not Be The Elder Scrolls

Chalk this one up as a disappointment, and actually a rather old news story by news standards. I came across an article from early April from Bethesda stating that multiplayer in The Elder Scrolls was entirely possible, but the company believes multiplayer would detract from what they see as primarily a rich and deep single player game, rather than the recent formula which appears to be a short single player story with the primary focus being multiplayer level grinding.

For what it’s worth, Bethesda was referring to the game Skyrim coming up this year, and an MMO is still possible in the future, having a game that is completely online instead of trying to split the two systems and dilute both experiences. Until Zenimax opens its doors and tells us what it’s been working on, all we can do is speculate.

2. Rift’s New Coin Lock Restrictions Prevent Banning

One of my criticisms with Rift’s coin lock system is that, although it was designed to stop commercial account theft by making the character unable to trade, drop, or deposit, the system did not stop non-commercial account theft (IE: The guy who steals your account just to ruin your day). It did not prevent the person from getting banned via chat-spam or a gold farmer using the account simply to spam advertisements for their website.

The new restrictions on Rift’s coin lock restrict access to everything Guild and Chat related, so a compromised character can no longer speak, nor can they wreak havoc on their guild. All I can say is, good on you Trion. There is the matter I brought up of tying the account lock to email, a system likely to also be compromised along with a person’s account, but it’s a good step nonetheless.

I use Rift’s authenticator on my iPad, not that I’m worried about my account being stolen. I set it up just to test it when it came out and, quite frankly, I’m too lazy to go through the channels to have it removed.

http://rift.mmosite.com/opinion/more_coin_lock_restrictions.shtml

3. I Shared The Agency’s Lack of Enthusiasm

Looking back on The Agency, I’m almost relieved the title was canned. The more I saw the game’s trailers and interviews, the more I saw a concept that worked well in theory, but in practice would not fit well within the MMO genre. More importantly, I noticed a distinct lack of enthusiasm from Sony Online Entertainment, almost reminiscent of a kid who doesn’t want to play a musical instrument, but his parents make him, so he tries his best because he’s stuck there anyway, but he’s ready to throw that thing in the trash as soon as he receives the green light. The news for The Agency was sporadic, and often went through long periods with absolutely no information.

The Agency reminds me of Dungeon Runners, an experimental title that has ceased its operations. On the other hand, however, Sony can hopefully put more manpower into its upcoming series continuities; Everquest Next and Planetside Next.

4. I’m Looking Into Culling More Categories

I’m trying to give myself a consistent set of guidelines with MMO Fallout, because I hear from the grapevine that that is what real journalists do. Being the nonprofessional dope I am, I’m pretty much winging it. I did decide on delisting MMOs that are cancelled before release, at the end of the month they are cancelled, meaning The Agency is delisted, as well as Stargate Worlds.

Looking at my editorials page, I realized I need to do a lot more with that section than I have in the past. Checking in with the BBB is a series I’m proud of, but the category became rather stagnant and unchanging, even at three months per article. So I’ve deleted the category, and the series has been relegated to once every six months, meaning I’ll put out an article in June.

I’ve also deleted Looking Back, Moving Forward, because I hate monthly recaps. I don’t want to reread my own articles at the end of every month to pick out which ones I happen to like the most. Sales is gone, because I now have a dedicated sales and where to buy page that is hard enough to keep updated by themselves, especially since I’ve broken the HTML on the Sales page so many times it’s a wonder this website hasn’t started murdering random viewers in some violent revenge plot against its human oppressors.

So my remaining articles are In Plain English, which still has a purpose. My more regular categories will be Killing MMOs, Week in Review, and Community Concerns, all of which will be weekly articles.

That’s all for this week.

Interplay To Bethesda: No, You're Absurd!


This is an old screenshot.

Back in April I happily announced that the Interplay Vs Bethesda lawsuit was over, after an investor reported to Joystiq that Bethesda had dropped their suit. Of course, as we discovered in our long and incredibly painful interrogation of investor Frymuchan, Bethesda confirmed that they were not dropping the suit, and planned to continue full steam ahead.

Last month, Bethesda made a claim so ridiculously absurd that I did not report on it out of strong suspicious that the report was fake. As we know so far, Interplay has the rights to create a Fallout MMO, which is what spawned the whole lawsuit in the first place (Bethesda wants those rights back). In their latest claim, Bethesda made the statement that they only gave the rights to the name Fallout for the MMO, and that Interplay had no rights to use anything else from the franchise in said MMO. So…Interplay agreed to making a Fallout MMO that has nothing whatsoever to do with Fallout aside from the name? Bethesda may have had a stronger case just having their lawyer shout out “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit,” during trial.

Interplay, of course, fired back yesterday calling the claim “absurd” and “without merit,” surely far more conscious words than many of us would use to describe such statements (I’ll start with juvenile, desperate, pathetic, and you can fill in the rest). For a company that is worried about the Fallout MMO never making it to light, Bethesda sure is spending a lot of time and effort to cripple Interplay through legal fees and wasted time.

Then again, when the genre is continuing to take more serious turns, we can always use two clowns in the corner honking their horns and throwing pies in each other’s faces. For comedic purposes. It’s a good thing Interplay talked about the Fallout MMO being light hearted and humorous, because the game itself is already a running joke, not unlike Duke Nukem Forever. Not the happy funny either, but the depressing funny, like laughing at the crazy homeless guy with the tinfoil hat and the “The end is nigh” cardboard poster.

(Source: Gamasutra, linked above)

Interplay To Bethesda: No, You’re Absurd!


This is an old screenshot.

Back in April I happily announced that the Interplay Vs Bethesda lawsuit was over, after an investor reported to Joystiq that Bethesda had dropped their suit. Of course, as we discovered in our long and incredibly painful interrogation of investor Frymuchan, Bethesda confirmed that they were not dropping the suit, and planned to continue full steam ahead.

Last month, Bethesda made a claim so ridiculously absurd that I did not report on it out of strong suspicious that the report was fake. As we know so far, Interplay has the rights to create a Fallout MMO, which is what spawned the whole lawsuit in the first place (Bethesda wants those rights back). In their latest claim, Bethesda made the statement that they only gave the rights to the name Fallout for the MMO, and that Interplay had no rights to use anything else from the franchise in said MMO. So…Interplay agreed to making a Fallout MMO that has nothing whatsoever to do with Fallout aside from the name? Bethesda may have had a stronger case just having their lawyer shout out “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit,” during trial.

Interplay, of course, fired back yesterday calling the claim “absurd” and “without merit,” surely far more conscious words than many of us would use to describe such statements (I’ll start with juvenile, desperate, pathetic, and you can fill in the rest). For a company that is worried about the Fallout MMO never making it to light, Bethesda sure is spending a lot of time and effort to cripple Interplay through legal fees and wasted time.

Then again, when the genre is continuing to take more serious turns, we can always use two clowns in the corner honking their horns and throwing pies in each other’s faces. For comedic purposes. It’s a good thing Interplay talked about the Fallout MMO being light hearted and humorous, because the game itself is already a running joke, not unlike Duke Nukem Forever. Not the happy funny either, but the depressing funny, like laughing at the crazy homeless guy with the tinfoil hat and the “The end is nigh” cardboard poster.

(Source: Gamasutra, linked above)

Bethesda: You Flippin' Betta'


Dan Bull wants a new Elder Scrolls game, and here at MMO Fallout we share his desire, although we aren’t necessarily willing to sing about it. Of course, we can always keep up hope that the next Elder Scrolls is the MMO that Zenimax Studios is allegedly working on.

Oh well. We’re behind you, Dan Bull! We’ll just let you do the rapping, for all of our sake.

Bethesda: You Flippin’ Betta’


Dan Bull wants a new Elder Scrolls game, and here at MMO Fallout we share his desire, although we aren’t necessarily willing to sing about it. Of course, we can always keep up hope that the next Elder Scrolls is the MMO that Zenimax Studios is allegedly working on.

Oh well. We’re behind you, Dan Bull! We’ll just let you do the rapping, for all of our sake.

Hey Look: A Fallout Online Website!


Wishing you were here...

It’s been a while since any real news on Project V13, other than Bethesda reminding us that the lawsuit is not over, and January’s announcement that the beta would be running sometime in 2012.

Like any good E3, the event brought with it plenty of news outside of the convention itself. Foremost: Interplay has seen fit to launch a Fallout Online website, that appears to be legit (Interplay is linking to it from their main website), and allows people to register for the beta, whenever that comes out.

Good time to move Project V13 to the Upcoming section! Don’t forget when you sign up, that the beta is not expected until 2012.

Bethesda Vs Interplay: The Lawsuit Is NOT Down


On your way, vault dweller

Update: According to a report from Bethesda to Joystiq, the lawsuit has not been dropped. Please accept our apologies as our bounty hunter tracks down Interplay investor “Frymuchan” for his disservice.

“It’s an ongoing legal matter. I don’t know where whoever reported that got their information, but it is ongoing and we are going to see how it plays out in court.”

It feels like a long time since I’ve been able to update on the Bethesda/Interplay lawsuit, and in fact it’s been over four months since the latest lawsuit news! And what news it is:

Bethesda has dropped the lawsuit against Interplay, over the Fallout MMO “Project V13,” allowing the struggling developer to move full steam ahead in their development. The terms of the dropped lawsuit are in the secret vaults for now, but hopefully someone from Bethesda or Interplay can shed some light in the coming days, on the status of Project V13 and the two company’s involvement, and perhaps what led to the lawsuit being dropped.

For the sake of not getting up hopes, I’m still leaving Project V13 in the “rumor mill” file, as no longer being sued puts the title exactly where it was before the lawsuit began: On a long road to nowhere. We are also awaiting news of Bethesda’s upcoming MMO, speculated to be based on the Elder Scrolls universe (Well if it was a Fallout MMO, it is scrapped now)

The Fallout MMO is expected to go into beta sometime in mid-to-late 2012, and no that isn’t one of my jokes.

Project V13 Beta! In 2012…


Don't hold your Nuka Cola.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Project V13, the fabled Fallout MMO and namesake for this blog, is trucking along and will be hitting beta soon. The bad news is that by soon, I mean soon in Valve Time, and it may be likely that the beta will trigger the end of the world as we know it.

In a recent posting over at Interplay’s website, the company has announced that they have been working with Masthead Studios to bring their vision of Fallout to life, with all of the vaults, irradiated beverages, and super mutants that you know and love. Even more descriptively was the note that Project V13 will be using the same proprietary tools as Earthrise.

“Masthead joined the project in early 2009 and development continues under Interplay’s direction and control. Project: V13 will utilize the proprietary tools and MMOG technology Masthead developed for its “Earthrise” project.”

How soon is this beta, you say, Omali? Not soon enough that you shouldn’t put off buying anything. We’re looking at mid to late 2012.

“This MMOG will have many unique features that we will disclose before launch of the public Beta in 2012.”

But it isn’t all bad. Tell me, Interplay, will Project V13 be innovative, or will it be just a sad re-skinning of functions and mechanics we have already seen before?

“Project: V13 incorporates many creative and technological innovations. We believe it will be a unique experience. Our technology will continue to evolve in order to realize all the extraordinary content and features Interplay has designed.”

Good enough for me. More on Project V13 when we get closer to the beta in two years.

Bethesda/Zenimax: What Is Going On Over There?


It is likely not Fallout

Zenimax Media is just one of the Area 51’s of the MMO world. Zenimax owns Bethesda, id Software, and several other studios. The studio has since become the MMO branch of Bethesda, and according to past rumors has been working on an upcoming title since at least 2007. Rumors had it that the MMO was going to be the oft-rumored Fallout MMO that Interplay had started but never gave information on.

In court documents recently discovered during the Bethesda Interplay lawsuit, details have come forward related to this secret MMO that Zenimax has been working on. Bethesda has funneled tens of millions of dollars into this project, that has been under development since 2006 (So the rumors were not far off). A team of approximately one hundred people are working on the game, and according to VG247, should have been announced last year.

In the legal documents, Bethesda has described the title as a “World of Warcraft” style MMO, and may be set 200 years after Oblivion (as revealed by the Elder Scrolls novel, that accidentally leaked the next game in the series). It is not currently clear what Bethesda means by a WoW-like MMO, in the creative sense or the mechanic sense (It’s an MMO).

So what does VG247’s source say about this MMO? It is based on the Elder Scrolls series. Even better, the title was supposed to be announced late 2009, but the announcement was somehow missed, potentially relating to the lawsuit between Bethesda and Interplay. VG247 appears to be very confident in their source.

There does seem to be some legitimacy in the claims, as Bethesda has reportedly moved to have any revealing legal documents censored to the public domain, even though the old analogy fits of closing the fence door once the horses have escaped. It is possible but unlikely that Zenimax is working on a Fallout MMO in expectation that Interplay will lose the lawsuit, and for all intense and purpose, they do know a lot more than we do as to how well the court case is going.

More on Bethesda’s MMO as it becomes apparent, and more on Fallout (The MMO) as it appears as well.