14 DAY TRIAL // Interplay, the company which retains the right to use the Fallout franchise to create a MMO video game, has announced that its Fallout Online game is on track and will get a beta stage at some point in early 2012 with the official launch date set for later in the year.
Eric Caen, who is the president of Interplay, has told Edge as part of an interview that, “We have a beta scheduled for 2012, with the commercial launch in the second half of 2012.”
He went on to add, “We have 90 people working on it. Even in January 2009, you were already able to move across the world.”
In June Interplay created an official website for Fallout Online and began sending newsletter which deliver story backgrounds to those who sign up.
Caen justified the relative lack of news linked to the MMO saying that his company is still engaged in a legal battle with Bethesda and everything that the company makes public can be used in that legal process.
Caen also says that when compared to Fallout 3, which arrived in 2009, the MMO will aim for more humor and more depth at the same time.
He says, “It's not a shooting game we're making. You can shoot, but it's a very small portion of the game. The game itself is about reconstructing the world.”
The concept of a Fallout MMO is certainly an appealing one, with each player cast as one of the survivors of the nuclear exchange between China and the United States and working to make a name for themselves in this brand new world.
It's not clear exactly where the Fallout MMO will take place or how much of the lore the people at Interplay are planning to take as cannon in their game.
At the moment fans of the Fallout universe can enjoy New Vegas, which was developed by Obsidian.