Interplay has sold the rights to the Fallout intellectual property to Bethesda for $5.75 million. Interestingly, Interplay now acts as a licensee of the Fallout IP, and as part of the deal they will be required to begin development of a Fallout MMO within 2 years.
New filings with the SEC show that Oblivion and current Fallout 3 developer Bethesda Softworks has officially purchased the Fallout series IP from current holders Interplay for $5.75 million, with Interplay now acting as licensee for its own planned Fallout MMO.
In an interesting twist, as part of the agreement Interplay now acts as a licensee of the IP as it continues to ramp up production on its own Fallout-themed massively multiplayer game, first announced in 2004 alongside Bethesda's sequel, and shown via internal documents as recently as December to have a projected $75 million dollar budget and launch date of 2010.
In a special clause of the purchase agreement, Interplay agrees that "full-scale development of its FALLOUT MMOG will commence within 24 months of the Effective Date of this Agreement" and that "Interplay will have secured financing for the FALLOUT MMOG in an amount no less than $30 million" within that time frame or forfeit its license rights for the MMO.
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