Fallout MMO On The Horizon?
Interplay…bet you haven’t heard that name in a while, is still around. No really, it’s true. In fact, when parent company, Titus Interactive, sold off Fallout 3 to keep their head above water, one of the most important things they kept was the right to develop a MMO based on the legendary Fallout series. Now they’re finally doing something with it.
NextGen.biz reports that a proposal was filed in late November informing the US SEC (United States Securities and Exchange Commission) of the company’s hopes to raise $75 million dollars through the sale of Interplay common stock on one of the Euronext pan-European exchanges. With the money raised from this sale, they would begin developing the proposed MMO with other development and distribution partners. According to the filing, $5 million will be allocated for pre-production, $40 million for production and a launch budget of $30 million. You have to admit, a $75 million dollar budget is huge, even in the film industry.
Interplay hopes to begin production in 2007 with a release planned for the third quarter of 2010. Within the first year, Interplay expects to have a user base of 1 million and turn a profit within 2 years, “revenue of $160 million annually after its first year and net income of $50 million annually starting in year three.”
Could this be a much needed ‘fenix down’ for Interplay? Is this once mighty Phoenix about to rise from its ashes? Only time will tell. However, as a massive fan of the Fallout series and seeing so much potential in such a MMO, I truly believe this could save the legendary developer and grow into a fantastic product. Would you buy it? I sure as hell would.
A federal filing has revealed that diminished publisher/developer Interplay has big plans for its Fallout MMO—$75 million worth of plans, according to an investment proposition. [NextGen.biz]
The Interplay Filing/Proposal [SEC.gov]
Super Timsy
Posted to Video Games on 13 December 2006
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: black isle, fallout, interplay, mmo, mmorpg, rpg, titus interactive
Fallout is a great property which has been really under used in the last few years. Not only that but it’s post-apoc based, which is pretty rare in MMOs (only Auto Assault and Neocron which both failed). So there’s lots of room and fans that would definitely play it.
This isn’t exactly new news. Fallout fans (like myself) have long known that Interplay retained the rights to a Fallout MMO while Bethesda ended up with the right to develop a new game based on the franchise. The funding though is good news, IF they put it towards a Fallout MMO and don’t fritter it away on anything else. A Fallout MMO would instantly get my money if they remained true to the series while expanding the world in a faithful manner. There are plenty of threads to build an awesome game out of, even a satisfying endgame. (Guilds could build and operate their own bartertowns, perhaps?) I can’t wait for it. Hopefully they’ll work with Bethesda to build the property towards the future.