Is Bethesda Robbing Interplay Blind?
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Bethesda's parent company Zenimax, has reared its ugly head and turned Bethesda into an evil pawn in this sleazy form of license acquisition. These are the conditions set by Bethesda to allow Interplay to complete their MMO, you tell me if this seems fair:Why would Zenimax and Bethesda buy the exclusive Fallout rights? Quite simply, ownership leverage. Acquiring the licensing rights allows Zenimax to set ludacris conditions for Interplay and purposely led them to believe they would still be working on the MMO. They knowingly created these conditions so Interplay would forfeit the MMO rights, at no additional cost to Zenimax other than what had already been incurred upon buying the exclusive rights. Then their new MMO studio, Zenimax Online Studios produces the game and makes a potential profit of at least 88% more than the 12% of royalties it would have gotten from Interplay.
- No single player or offline mode in any way.
- Must be for PC or Mac only, no ports to console whatesoever.
- Minimum of 10,000 monthly subscribers.
- Furthermore, Interplay must enter "full-scale" development of the MMO with a minimum of $30 million in funding by two years from the signing of the agreement, or it immediately forfeits its rights to the license.
- Interplay may not sublicense any part of MMO development without Bethesda's approval.
- The MMO "must meet or exceed such quality standards as may be set by Bethesda from time to time" in order for Interplay to remain in good standing, and Bethesda has the right to inspect Interplay's offices and development progress at any time during normal business hours provided two days' notice is given.
- The company must launch the game in North America and Europe within four years of that development commencement date, with the potential for a one-year extension if development is progressing adequately, giving the game a final release date limit of April 9, 2014
- In return for granting Interplay the MMO rights, Bethesda will receive royalties of 12% of sales, subscription fees, or other revenue generated by the game.
