Interplay vs. Bethesda, Continued

If you thought the last financials from Interplay would lead to the end of the legal fisticuffs between Interplay and Bethesda, you were sorely mistaken. Reports of interesting filings from the court case have hit the Internet, one in which Interplay claims it has indeed fulfilled its financial requirements.

Interplay satisfied its obligations under Section 2.3 of the TLA through a funding agreement with Interactive Game Group that provided up to $15 million and through a binding letter of intent for development services and subsequent agreement with Masthead Studios that provided approximately $20 million in development services and technology licenses.

The other has Bethesda repeating its request for a temporary injunction, a filing that includes the claim that Interplay’s FOOL design is intended to undermine “the plot-line of Bethesda’s awardwinning Fallout 3 game.”

Although it is unnecessary for establishing the requirements for preliminary injunctive relief, Interplay intends to use Bethesda’s copyrighted materials with the intent to undermine Bethesda’s reputation and the reputation of Bethesda’s award-winning Fallout 3 game. The original Fallout game takes place circa 2161, on the west coast of the United States, in a postapocalyptic world destroyed eighty-five years earlier by nuclear war. Fallout 2 also is set on the west coast of the United States and takes place approximately 80 years after Fallout (c. 2241). When Bethesda created Fallout 3, Bethesda continued the post-apocalyptic tradition of Fallout and Fallout 2. However, Bethesda set the game on the east coast of the United States approximately 35 years after Fallout 2 and 200 years after the nuclear war (c. 2277). Documents recently produced by Interplay reveal that Interplay intends to REDACTED . This places the Fallout MMOG story line REDACTED . Interplay’s documents show that, in its Fallout MMOG, Interplay intends to REDACTED . Specifically, Interplay’s documents state: REDACTED

In other words, Interplay intends to use the copyrighted Fallout artwork and backstory, which is undisputedly owned by Bethesda, to undermine the plot-line of Bethesda’s awardwinning Fallout 3 game. Obviously, this is intended to harm Bethesda’s reputation and that of the Fallout 3 game. Game players who follow the Fallout history will be confused and confounded by the sequence of events created by Interplay in its MMOG. For the Court’s convenience, the pertinent sections of the Interplay documents quoted above are reproduced in the images below.