Fallout Online
| Fallout Online | |
|---|---|
The 2011 logo for Fallout Online
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| Developer(s) |
Masthead Studios Interplay Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Interplay Entertainment |
| Designer(s) |
Chris Taylor Mark O'Green Jason Anderson |
| Artist(s) | Serg Souleiman |
| Series | Fallout |
| Engine | Earthrise Engine |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release | Cancelled |
| Genre(s) | Massively multiplayer online role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Fallout Online was a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) set in the Fallout universe that was being developed by Masthead Studios and was to be published by Interplay, with members of the Interplay team providing creative control and design. Chris Taylor and Mark O'Green, two of the creators of the original Fallout, were among the developers; Jason Anderson, one of the other makers of Fallout, was involved in the project between 2007 and 2009, but then left the team.
Interplay's rights to developing and publishing this game have been the subject of a legal dispute between Bethesda Softworks, the current owner of the Fallout franchise, and Interplay. An out-of-court settlement was reached in January 2012, in which Bethesda received full rights to the Fallout online game for two million dollars.
According to Interplay, they had created a large and multi-part "game-worldwide meta-puzzle". This meta-puzzle includes the puzzle structure, code system, and planned locations, which is designed to foster cooperation and competition among players for an extended time period. Interplay claimed it had mapped out approximately 65,500 square miles (170,000 km2) of terrain which had textures, with objects and characters implemented into it. Several game zones had been blocked out with textured and populated 3D objects. The initial starting zones for each player character race have also been designed, making it so that each character of a different race has a different story to start with. Computer models for many types of creatures had been designed and the 3D geometry and textures created and some NPCs have been created to live in the game. Fallout Online combat, leveling, character development, item crafting, skills have been written and tested. Interplay has revealed that it has created player-run towns (towns controlled by players), guild centers and social centers for players to interact in.
According to Feargus Urquhart, when Brian Fargo was still the president of Interplay, Fargo proposed a possible Fallout MMO to be made by Black Isle, but Urquhart refused, saying, "The reason at the time, because I would have loved to have made a Fallout MMO, was that I believed that Interplay was just not in a situation where they had the resources to do it. When you go off to do an MMO it's going to cost $100 million before you get it on the shelf; you've gotta buy servers and you've gotta have service people, and you have to have Game Masters. It's an undertaking, and on top of that, it means that you do have to do all that stuff so what else are you going to focus on? What other games are you going to be able to make?"
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