by Bret

Fallout MMO rights go to Bethesda in Interplay litigation! War never changes.

Yep, you heard right: All Fallout® Intellectual Property Rights Belong Exclusively to Bethesda! (headline stolen’d)

 

I dont understand law. So I’ve just copied the info. Suffice to say, Interplay have had to give Bethesda the full rights to Fallout (Interplay used to own the Fallout IP cuz they was the ones what done made the first ones).

This is for the best- Bethesda can actually do something with the IP. I do feel for Interplay though, their games by gamers for gamers policy is very endearing and they deserve more credit for their huge success- just a shame it didnt turn out to be financial success. The games industry has many such ghost ships floating around since the late 80s and early 90s. Still, the good news is, Bethesda get to make more cash. Interplay get a wad for their trouble but wont be able to sell Fallout games any more after 2013. Is that the event which marks the end of the world? Of course, hardly anyone can get Fallout 1 or 2 to run on a modern machine anyway. Bring us our iPhone Fallout version/ Live Arcade version Bethesda!

I don’t really know if I fancy a Fallout MMO. Is more Fallout worth the hassle of having to interact with other people? Anyway, this happened:

 

January 10, 2012 (London, UK) – ZeniMax® Media Inc. today announced that a settlement had been reached in the lawsuit filed by its subsidiary, Bethesda Softworks®, against Interplay Entertainment Corporation in 2009, Bethesda Softworks LLC v Interplay Entertainment Corp., seeking cancellation of the license granted to Interplay to develop a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) based on the Fallout brand. Bethesda maintained in its complaint that Interplay had failed to meet the conditions for the license and the license was therefore of no continuing validity.

 

Under the terms of the settlement, the license granted to Interplay to develop the Fallout MMO is null and void, and all rights granted to Interplay to develop a Fallout MMO revert back to Bethesda, effective immediately. Interplay has no ongoing right to use the Fallout brand or any Fallout intellectual property for any game development. ZeniMax will pay Interplay $2 million as consideration in the settlement, each party will bear its own costs of the litigation, and Bethesda will continue to own all Fallout intellectual property rights. Interplay will be permitted to continue to sell the original Fallout ®Tactics, Fallout® and Fallout® 2 PC games through December 2013, after which time all rights to market those games revert to and become the sole property of Bethesda. Under the original agreement pursuant to which Bethesda had acquired the Fallout property, Interplay was granted certain merchandising rights to sell those original Fallout games, but those merchandising rights will now expire on December 31, 2013.

 

The lawsuit against Interplay arose after Bethesda Softworks acquired all Fallout intellectual property rights from Interplay in April 2007, and conditionally licensed back to Interplay certain trademark rights to make a Fallout MMO, provided Interplay secured $30 million in financing for the MMO and commenced full scale development of the game by April 2009. Bethesda alleged in its complaint that Interplay failed to meet either condition of the license back agreement but refused to relinquish its license and insisted it would develop a Fallout MMO. Bethesda filed suit to declare the license void.

In a separate but related matter, Bethesda commenced a second action against a purported developer of the Fallout MMO, Masthead Studios, Bethesda Softworks LLC v Masthead Studios Ltd. In the course of the original lawsuit against Interplay, Interplay had claimed that it had engaged Masthead Studios to develop the Fallout MMO under its license, and contended that Masthead was engaged in full scale development of that game. Bethesda filed its separate lawsuit against Masthead to assert copyright infringement and other violations of Bethesda’s intellectual property rights. Under the MMO license granted to Interplay, Interplay was not permitted to sublicense any rights granted without the prior approval of Bethesda, approval which had never been requested or granted. In responding to Bethesda’s lawsuit, Masthead denied that it had been using any of Bethesda’s intellectual property in developing an MMO. Masthead and Bethesda settled that second lawsuit on December 29, 2011. In the settlement, Masthead acknowledges it has no legal right to use any Fallout intellectual property, and agrees it will not use any such intellectual property of Bethesda in the future. No payments were made by either party as part of this settlement. The two settlements resolve all pending litigation over the Fallout intellectual property owned by Bethesda.

 

Robert Altman, Chairman and CEO of ZeniMax, expressed satisfaction on behalf of the Company with the resolution of the two lawsuits saying, “While we strongly believe in the merits of our suits, we are pleased to avoid the distraction and expense of litigation while completely resolving all claims to the Fallout IP. Fallout is an important property of ZeniMax and we are now able to develop future Fallout titles for our fans without third party involvement or the overhang of others’ legal claims.”

Following the purchase of the property, Bethesda Game Studios, the 2011 ‘Studio of the Year’ and the development team behind the 2011 ‘Game of the Year’, The Elder Scrolls® V: Skyrim™, developed Fallout® 3. ZeniMax Media’s publishing subsidiary, Bethesda Softworks, published Fallout® 3, a highly acclaimed sequel which won ‘Game of the Year’ honors in 2008, for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows. Bethesda also published the popular title, Fallout: New Vegas®, in 2010 for the same platforms. Fallout: New Vegas® Ultimate Edition, which will include the original game and the award-winning downloadable content in one special package, is planned for release by Bethesda in early 2012.

 

[sociable]

Help make “Aerith’s Theme” from FF7 the UK’s favourite classical tune!

A very nice man called Mark Robins in the games PR industry is trying to drum up some support for the cause of getting game music recognised by the mainstream.

I really approve of this idea. There are some amazing peices out there- the scores for Assassin’s Creed spring to mind. FF7’s tunes are nostalgic, iconic and startlingly well written

Gamers, unite!

 

Here’s the message from Mark:

Voting for the Classic FM 2012 Hall of Fame is now open – every year this run down of the 300 greatest pieces of classical music features amazing compositions from the greatest composers in history along with fantastic movie scores, BUT, to my knowledge it’s never featured any orchestral tracks from video games.

This MUST change!!

From now until voting closes on Feb 29th I’m asking all fans of video games and video games music to visit the voting site at http://www.classicfmhalloffame.co.uk/ and vote for classical interpretations of their favourite bits of video game music.

To make a real splash though, I’m hoping that everybody who does vote chooses Nobuo Uematsu’s “Aerith’s Theme” from Final Fantasy VII for at least one of their choices so we can really push it up the chart – and for anybody who wants a reminder of what that sounds like, here’s a link http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TXO5CO/ref=dm_dp_trk3

This is a UK radio station, but voting appears to be open worldwide so please let everybody you know who loves video game music to come “like” this page and vote. Let’s get video game music the recognition it deserves.

THANKS!

Mark

 

You can obey here:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Get-Video-Games-Music-into-the-Classic-FM-Hall-of-Fame/246123792126219

VOTING SITE: www.classicfmhalloffame.co.uk

 
[sociable]

The Healthening – 05/01/12

Afternoon all. Sherlock is back! Excellent stuff. Ending of first episode daft and unlikely. But, glad its back.

 

I begin week one of my lifestyle change with trepidation. I found an old record of my weight from ’07 and it was 14 stone and 7 pounds… so I’ve gained one and a half stone since university.

I think that happens to a lot of students- the drinkyhol, the cheap food, yada yada. Now it’s time to turn the trend around. Being obese, frankly, is rubbish. I also hate the word and intend to use it as little as possible, except when I need to remind myself how important this is.

There is a world between ‘fat’ and ‘obese’. The former sounds more like a degree of weight- a bit fat, fairly fat, very fat. The latter is more like a situation. Obese sounds medical. Obese is a tombstone. There has never been a cadaver in the morgue with merely ‘fat’ written on the toe tag.

So, seeking a starting point, I went to the local health centre. This is not a favourite activity- especially when I’m not actually ill. Sitting in the waiting room surrounded by the pox-ridden is no fun at all. Covering as many orifices as decorum would allow, I went to see the nurse.

Foxy nurse? Oh no. She was a he and he was almost the same size as me. Okay, no worries- I rarely practise what I preach. He did give me some info and a most handy booklet from the kind folks at British Heart Foundation, entitled ‘So you want to lose weight… for good’ (as opposed to… for evil).

The booklet is my friend, it tells me what to do and how to think and where to bury them. I will divulge gems from the booklet as and when I feel like it, or when I think it isn’t watching me. Here’s one: ‘Know when you’re hungry (in your stomach)’. Did that just blow your mind, or what?

Sillyness aside, the booklet does have a lot to say; info on fad diets (humbug) and meal ideas which will no doubt be useful. It also breaks down all the foods of the world into colour coded categories and portions. I can have 8 portions of starchy food- a portion being smaller than you might imagine (for example, 3 tablespoons of cereal is one). Small units make the whole thing a bit more modular- you can have more than one portion in a meal. Well, this coming week I will try to adhere to the BHF plan.

Nursey also described, in terms I have forgotten already, the steady release of insulin in the human body throughout the day. Insulin is released in intervals, so having meals at set times (including the all-important breakfast that I usually dodge) is important, as it makes the most of the insulin and achieves an efficient conversion of food to energy. Already I feel my mind slipping towards the simplicity of not caring, but I will and must try to make this work.

He recommended keeping a food diary. To this end I have employed the services of an app and website called ‘myfitnesspal’. So far I would recommend this app heartily- it allows you to enter your height and weight to get an idea of your daily allowance of calories. Then you add the foods you eat, in a diary style, by a little search function or even by scanning the barcode with your phone’s camera. Uh-may-zing. That has kept me busy for a while, entering every last thing I eat.

Practically speaking, that’s the extent of my regime so far. At first I will be avoiding an exercise program and strict dieting and instead just focus on what I currently eat and what needs to change. I have been eating pretty badly to be honest. I eat perhaps two takeaways a week; pizzas, burgers, but mostly chicken (KFC if I feel really deviant). I eat vegetables only when my girlfriend makes me (something like peas, one or two days a week) and fruit never enters the equation. I don’t mind mushrooms- they’re meaty and go nicely on a pizza. I dislike the flavour of most veg and fruit intensely and I do wonder if this is a learned habit that can be broken.

To add some background to my limited diet- a few years ago I didn’t even eat mushrooms. I touched no eggs or pasta for years. I drank Coca-Cola in its various forms every day, as a preference to water. These things changed gradually as I spent more time with my girlfriend. Now is the time for further change. Even if I hate it. Today- first day in years without a glass of coke. Strange and very necessary.

Obviously, takeaways have to go. Certainly no more than one a week. The gist is that the same meal cooked at home will be much better for you than the same from a takeaway. Some part of me is saddened to turn my back on this delightful and satisfying service- who can ignore the sheer ease of buying cooked food rather than messing about with ingredients and washing up. One hopes to save some money from having less takeaways, but even healthy food doesn’t exactly grow on trees (I know, how droll).

Speaking of which, I repeatedly come into contact with the advice of eating five fruit and/or vegetables a day. Now, I have an issue with this one. I can never make five. It’s meant to be easy, but I dislike most forms of vegetable and fruit to the point that I can’t eat them. Apples I can handle; they do what they say on the tin, they taste nice, they’re cheap. Oranges are okay, but breaking into them is a lot of effort for a man of idle tendencies. I believe there are some other fruits, but I’m not sure what they are called or what they do. I see them on television and in the market, but they come in funny shapes. Bananas? I’m not going to eat any fruit that looks so passive-aggressive.

I have some kind of apple and grape bag thing from the supermarket to stand in for regular snackage. This is a sad day. Where my chemicals at?

 

-how many calories are burned when procrastinating?
[sociable]