SKIRMISHER

Upon hearing the news that Bethesda (and some other people who care) has finally bought the Fallout IP — resurrecting the beloved game from its undeserved residency in that gray place called limbo — we completely broke down on the floor in wild, uncontrollable sobbing, feeling for the first time in our empty lives the very real presence of a caring, post-nuclear-apocalypse-loving god.

New filings with the SEC show that Oblivion and current Fallout 3 developer Bethesda Softworks has officially purchased the Fallout series IP from current holders Interplay for $5.75 million, with Interplay now acting as licensee for its own planned Fallout MMO.

According to the filing, first spotted by Fallout fansite No Mutants Allowed, the purchase of the Fallout license and accompanying IP was settled on April 9th, with final payment installments expected to be delivered by the third quarter of this year.

Prior to the purchase, Bethesda was licensing the Fallout IP from Interplay as it has continued to develop Fallout 3, its own sequel to the cult-classic post-apocalyptic RPG series first developed by Black Isle Studios in 1997. In a recent interview, Bethesda’s Pete Hines told Gamasutra that the team was “a fairly good ways into the process”, and noted that “Fallout is not a quick two year process, and we are already several years into the project”.

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