Despite legal issues between Bethesda Softworks and Interplay, it seems Fallout Online, the MMO based on the Fallout universe is continuing production, and is even coming close to the beta phase.
A teaser website for the game has recently been launched and is accepting sign-ups for a beta period.
This has been confirmed as real; the website is registered to Interplay and they currently have a large banner linking to the website.
When Interplay sold the rights of the Fallout franchise to Bethesda in 2007, they retained a license to develop the MMO with the stipulation that production would be in full-swing by April of 2009.
In September of 2009, Bethesda sued, claiming Interplay hadn’t started production. Interplay launched a counter-suit claiming the legal interrupting went against the contract of sale of the franchise, making the sale obsolete.
Bethesda’s injunction attempting to stop production was denied in December of 2009. As of April of this year, they have dropped their appeal to stop the game’s production, as well as Interplay’s ability to sell the earlier titles in the series that they produced. The original lawsuit continues.
Whether the game actually gets released, we’ll have to wait and see.
