Bethesda Entertainment is taking action, in relation to its ongoing lawsuit against Interplay, which will make it all but impossible for the rival company to talk about the already established Fallout universe in the MMO it is developing with possible launch date of 2012.
Bethesda is taking aim at the symbols and names that Interplay is currently using to promote
Fallout Online on its official website, mainly the logo, the Vault Boy icon, the two headed Grahmin cattle and the mentions of supporting character Harold.
Apparently Interplay sought approval from Bethesda for use of the above materials linked to Fallout and Bethesda rejected their claim only to see the symbols used without it.
Interplay has responded in court, saying that it “denies plaintiff's right to use the Fallout mark is exclusive.”
The Fallout universe has been bought by Bethesda in 2007 from Interplay for 5.75 million dollars, allowing the company to continue work on its Fallout Online project as long as it abides by a set of conditions.
The two companies have since then engaged in a legal battle linked to those terms, with Bethesda probably interested in getting the rights to the MMO back from Interplay.
At the moment, Bethesda is trying to persuade the courts that it only licensed the Fallout name back to Interplay and that all other content for its MMO concept must be built from scratch, without a clear link to other elements of the universe.
A lot of those have been used by Bethesda in Fallout 3 and its companion game, New Vegas, and the company is probably concerned that Interplay might use the popular ones to draw players to Fallout Online.
Both
Fallout 3 and New Vegas have been very successful, both critically and commercially, and Bethesda is no doubt interested in delivering more gaming experiences based in the universe, maybe even thinking of an MMO of its own.
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