Interplay is announcing that it has entered into a deal with Masthead Studios, which is already working on a MMO called Earthrise, regarding the development of the rumored Fallout MMO. The Bulgarian developer is set to provide the tools and technology needed to bring the vision of the Interplay team to life. Initial development on the title started way back in 2007.

When Bethesda bough the Fallout franchise from cash-strapped Interplay, the seller kept the right to create a MMO set in the same universe, while ceding the rights to all other videogames based on it. Since then, the MMO has been referred to as Project V13 and the only details that we know of are that the game will benefit from the development expertise of Chris Taylor, the guy who also led the team that created the first classic game set in the Fallout universe. At the moment, there is no release period announced and how the MMO will work is pretty much unknown.

Herve Caen, who is the chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of Interplay, declared that “We are looking forward to turning the vision of our game designers into a compelling online gaming experience. The planning and design completed for Project V13 thus far, combined with Masthead's resources, tools, and growing team of dedicated MMOG developers, will bring this unique game to reality.”

With Bethesda already thinking of not working on Fallout 4, 2010 might prove to be a busy year for fans of the franchise. The only big question is which area of the United States the Fallout MMO will be set in. After all, the West Coast was tackled in the first two releases, Washington DC and the East Coast seem to be the realm of Bethesda's adventures, so the Midlands might make a good setting for the upcoming game.