Bethesda loses to Interplay in court

Fallout 3 developer Bethesda Softworks has failed to prevent Interplay from publishing and developing its own Fallout titles.

A highly-publicised legal wrangle between the two groups ended with a US district judge ruling in Interplay’s favour, court documents reveal.

Interplay was judged to be free to publish the three PC games Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics, and the trilogy package itself. Interplay is also permitted to continue work on MMO spin-off, called Project V13.

Bethesda has issued a number of complaints to Interplay, claiming the two should have consulted on the marketing of the Fallout Trilogy, and going as far as suggesting that Interplay’s trilogy shouldn’t have appeared at all.

Bethesda claimed that the contemporaneous release of the Fallout Trilogy was damaging to its own business, as it confused fans of the two brands.

Bethesda also was claiming that the rights to develop a Fallout MMO should be handed over by Interplay.