Interplay Files Fallout Countersuit Against Bethesda

The battle between Interplay and Bethesda over the future of the Fallout license has taken an interesting turn. Interplay has responded to Bethesda's lawsuit with one of their own.

Interplay sold Bethesda the rights to create future Fallout single-player games in 2007, while retaining the MMORPG rights. Bethesda's lawsuit, filed in September, contends that Interplay waited too long to begin full-scale development on the Fallout MMO and that their agreement is now null and void and that the MMO rights should belong to Bethesda.

The countersuit filed by Interplay, detailed by a Raging Bull user (via GamePolitics), states that Bethesda was actually the one in breach of contract. They allege that Bethesda abruptly scuttled a deal for a pen-and-paper Fallout RPG, which forced Interplay to pay damages to Glutton Creeper (the company creating the pen-and-paper game). The countersuit also accuses Bethesda of (incorrectly) telling Gametap and other digital distributors that Interplay did not have the rights to sell the older Fallout games through their websites.

The Raging Bull user states that if a judge sided with Interplay, "the former contract is in effect which states that Interplay owns the Fallout license and Bethesda sublicenses it and only has rights to Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 and Fallout 5." Bethesda would therefore need to pay royalties for Fallout 3 as well as any damages incurred by their interference into Interplay's Fallout dealings with third parties.

The guy posting this information has a decidedly pro-Interplay/anti-Bethesda bend so he's looking for the best case scenario for Interplay, here. I don't have sufficient legal knowledge to say whether Interplay could realistically get the full Fallout license back. Looks like this could get pretty ugly, though.