Fallout Tactics news

Legal war never changes. After Bethesda Softworks' motion for preliminary injunction against Interplay Entertainment was denied again, Bethesda now appeals the court ruling on that again as well. Here's a quote from the latest court filing:

After their previous motion for preliminary injunction was denied, Bethesda first fired their law firm and hired a new one, and then dropped the appeal. Will history repeat itself again in these regards as well?

As a reminder to those who are not well versed in legal terms, a preliminary injunction would prevent Interplay from continuing its work on Fallout Online and its sale of the original Fallout games, including the Fallout Trilogy pack until the final verdict on the Bethesda v. Interplay case is made. Even without preliminary injunction, Bethesda may still prevail in the case as a whole.

Almost all released Fallout games are currently available at discounted prices as part of the current "Steam Summer Camp Sale" (June 30 - July 10). In particular, the prices are:

Good Old Games digital download platform has announced that all Interplay titles on sale there are now 50% off. The sale includes Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics, each of which can now be purchased for as little as $2.99.

Unfortunately, this does not include some of the games originally developed and/or published by Interplay and Black Isle, as for example the Dungeons & Dragons games like Icewind Dale or Planescape: Torment are now owned by Atari.

Here's another episode of our continued coverage of the Bethesda v. Interplay courtroom drama.

During a motion hearing held earlier today, Bethesda's partial motion to dismiss Counts I and II of Interplay's recent amended counterclaim was argued in court and denied by judge Deborah K. Chasanow. As a reminder, Bethesda wanted the court to dismiss Interplay's counterclaim because the agreements that, according to Interplay, Bethesda has breached, are "clear and unambiguous" and that "no cause of action for breach has been stated" as, according to Bethesda, the agreement clearly does not require Bethesda to allow Interplay the use of any Fallout intellectual property assets other than the name Fallout itself for its Fallout Online MMO. The court's denial to dismiss the motion does not necessarily mean that the judge agrees with Interplay's interpretation, simply that Bethesda's interpretation is not as "clear and obvious" enough to dismiss it.

Additionally, however, the court stated that Interpl…

Here's a bunch of Chris Taylor quotes about Fallout Online from the official Interplay forum:

Single-player Fallout from Interplay?

Engine:

One big server vs. sharding:

Platforms:

SPECIAL:

Interplay investor orionquest also reports that Bethesda has filed court paperwork requesting a trial by jury from the judge presiding over the Bethesda v. Interplay case over the rights to Fallout Online, as well as Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics. We'll let you know when we know more.

Duck and Cover has obtained the filing schedule for the Bethesda v. Interplay lawsuit. Given that the last line, for December, says "pretrial", it looks like the legal battle won't end anytime soon, unless the parties come to a settlement.

We have acquired copies of e-mails exchanged between Interplay's Herve Caen and Bethesda/ZeniMax representatives, submitted by Caen as court evidence in the Bethesda v. Interplay case.

We have received a 17-page document written and signed by Herve Caen, summarizing Interplay's arguments in its battle with Bethesda over the rights to the Fallout franchise. Here's a summary of the most interesting points:

• Interplay has continuously sold Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics since their original release dates, as standalone products or in compilations such as Saga Fallout (since 2004), Fallout Trilogy and Fallout Collection (since at least 2005 or 2006).
• Under the 2007 Asset Purchase Agreement (APA), Interplay has retained perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, and exclusive right to continue selling the Interplay-developed Fallout games (reffered to collectively as "Pre-existing Fallout games").
• The parties fully expected that new Fallout games by Bethesda would renew consumer interest in the pre-existing games and the perpetual rights to continue the sales thereof were a substantial part of the consideration Interplay was to receive in exchange for giving the rights to the franchise to …

Duck and Cover has managed to acquire the very fragments of the Bethesda v. Interplay court transcripts that Bethesda requests to be redacted, as well as some additional banter regarding the Fallout Trilogy.

Thanks to Interplay shareholder orionquest, we have acquired the second part of the partial transcript of the preliminary injunction hearing in the Bethesda v. Interplay case. Hopefully, he'll eventually share the full thing with us. The first part can be read here.

Mr. Gersh is Interplay's lawyer, Mr. Marbury is Bethesda's, and the Court is judge Deborah K. Chasanow. TLA refers to the Trademark Licensing Agreement, while APA refers to the Asset Purchase Agreement.

You can notice that the text includes some typos, but we kep the text as it is presented in the court documents.