Fallout MMO Confirmed, Coming in 2012

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Many gamers already now that the most recent Fallout games are just the latest titles in a heritage that goes back more than a decade to 1997’s Fallout. What some may not know is that Bethesda acquired the right to make Fallout games when original publisher Interplay fell on financial hardship. While that deal’s resulted in Fallout 3 and this week’s Fallout: New Vegas, Interplay retained the rights to make an MMO based on the post-nuclear RPG. It’s been undergoing development under the codename Project V13 and they’ve finally announced a release window for the irradiated online universe.

According to comments made to UK gaming mag Edge, Interplay president Eric Caen says players will be able to get into an MMO version of Fallout by 2012. Caen says that they have a beta planned for early 2012, with the commercial launch in the second half of 2012. A team of 90 people have supposedly been working on it. The fiction of the MMO will apparently involve rebuilding the world devastated by nuclear war. And some of the tension between Bethesda and Interplay over various lawsuits over the years and split legacy of Fallout comes out in Caen’s remarks, too:

“An MMOG must be a lot deeper than a standalone game. 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. What is unique about our project is how we’re trying to get it into many communication systems.

[snip]

“We appreciate some portions of [Bethesda’s work], and we’re not necessarily fans of everything. I think they miss a lot of the humour, and the fans seem to agree with that. Fallout 3 was a little bit too serious – that’s definitely not where we’re going. Our Fallout MMOG will be extremely funny.”