Bethesda loses Interplay court battle
Fallout 3 publisher/developer fails to stop Interplay selling older games
Bethesda Softworks has failed in its attempt to have an injunction served against original Fallout 3 license holder Interplay, as a US District Court Judge finds in Interplay's favour.
According to court documents discovered by fan website Duck and Cover the judge's decision will mean that Interplay is still free to publish the original three PC titles (Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics) and the Fallout Trilogy compilation.
Interplay will also be free to continue work on its massively multiplayer online version of the franchise, currently known as Project V13.
Eric Caen, brother of Interplay boss Herve Caen, referred to the decision on Twitter by commenting: "I love justice!"
Bethesda had claimed that Interplay had broken the licensing agreement between the two companies, dating back to August 2007, when it failed to consult the company over the packaging design and marketing for Fallout Trilogy.
Making the compilation available via Steam and other download services has also angered Bethesda, who claim that customers could become confused between the compilation in particular and 2008's Fallout 3.
The status of Project V13 has also been a bone of contention, with Bethesda claiming that because full scale development on the project has not yet begun the rights to make a Fallout MMO should revert to them.