Who Owns Fallout?: A Look At The Franchise’S History

Bethesda Softworks owns the rights to the Fallout intellectual property. After acquiring it, Bethesda licensed the rights to develop a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) version of Fallout to Interplay. This licensing agreement, however, wasn’t straightforward. It had a clause that stipulated that if Interplay didn’t begin development of the MMORPG within a certain timeframe, the rights would revert back to Bethesda.

This clause was ultimately the catalyst for a legal battle between the two companies. Interplay, facing financial difficulties and unable to secure the funding necessary for the ambitious MMORPG project, was unable to meet the deadline. As a result, Bethesda reasserted its ownership of the Fallout MMORPG rights. This legal dispute and the eventual outcome had a significant impact on the Fallout franchise’s future. It solidified Bethesda’s control over the beloved franchise and paved the way for the successful development of the single-player Fallout games we know and love today.