Bethesda Softworks.... [http://www.bethsoft.com/eng/index.php]
Even the name makes you stop and think back on all the great games they came out with. The development house that brought you all 4 versions of The Elder Scrolls [http://www.elderscrolls.com/home/home.php], and Fallout 3 [http://fallout.bethsoft.com/index.html]. Its hard to really ever consider them capable of falling on their faces, but it seems if any year was to be the year of fumbled passes and bad public relations for this once godlike developer, its 2009.
Not only were Bethsoft's only two real offerings to the gaming market for 2009 horrible beyond the point of understanding, with Wet [http://wet.bethsoft.com/?fbid=38VIDFPWZid](Metacritic Rating of 69) being an action oriented console quasi rail shooter that had more control issues than a Russian space station, they also produced and released Rogue Warrior [http://www.roguewarrior.com/](Metacritic Rating of 26), in conjunction with Rebellion Software, regardless of Rebellion's professional history of making shoddy ass games at best.
And if that weren't enough, after purchasing the licensing rights for Fallout from Interplay to produce Fallout 3, which is arguably the game of the year for 2008, Bethsoft went on to pursue litigation [http://kotaku.com/5357724/bethesda-sues-interplay-over-fallout-trademark-infringement] against Interplay for Interplay's release of the Fallout games they produced under a one box solution, for, of all things, trademark infringement...and then, to add insult to injury to all us gamers and game fans out here, added a failure to comply charge and breach of contract [http://kotaku.com/5357724/bethesda-sues-interplay-over-fallout-trademark-infringement] to said lawsuit, further suing Interplay for their slow progress and production of an agreed upon Fallout MMO.
Now, I don't know about you but I pretty much figured that if we could get a Fallout MMO that actually had IP rights to the Fallout intellectual property, I could probably die a very old and happy gamer. But no, instead of realizing that Interplay was going to be unable to make good on its commitment and use the trademark intellectual property Bethesda reportedly paid 5.75 million dollars for to develop a Fallout Online for real, the folks at Bethsoft felt it was better to invest all that money they made off the sale of Fallout 3 on marketing Wet, Rogue Warrior and hiring a battery of lawyers to sue Interplay, and thusly, made no progress on anything and went pretty much the entire year of 2009 offering no new titles of any note to the industry.
Now, far as I'm concerned that is a pretty major chip in the foundation of trust Bethesda Softworks has built with the gaming demographic over the last ten years. And it shows a massive lack of pragmatic adaptation to situations as they change.
Bethesda has the right to make one of the most anticipated MMO's of all time, but refuses to do so themselves because they made some legal agreement with Interplay to do it for them. But rather than backing up, and taking over the project themselves as soon as it became obvious Interplay was not going to be able to produce on their end of the agreement and making themselves the equivalent of 200 oil tankers worth of cash, monthly, once said project is completed, they'd rather knock off a couple of horrendously produced titles that make Electronic Arts look like a responsible producer by comparison, and spend whats left of the Fallout 3 profits on suing the very developer that created the franchise in the first place.
I find this to be an appalling and rather under scrutinized fall from grace by one of the most enigmatic development houses in the industry of the last decade. Sure plenty of sites have reported on the lawsuit itself, but no ones really analyzed it for how absolutely asinine it is.
You'd rather sue someone that cannot produce a Fallout MMO, than use the legal rights you've purchased and that you're suing them under to do it yourselves Bethesda?
As a gamer I'm disappointed and find my faith in your products heavily tarnished by this, especially by that piece of crap Rogue Warrior that I actually paid $60.00 USD for, simply because Bethesda's name was on the box and I assumed that given their development standards and the IP the game was franchised from, it could have been a very interesting change of direction for Bethesda themselves, only to be greeted by 2 hours of random profanity from Mickey Rourke and level design that would be considered laughable even by Half Life 2 standards.
You dropped the ball this year Bethesda, and you did it while sitting on one of the most hotly anticipated properties in the whole of the gaming industry, all so you could litigate against Interplay for failure to comply with contractual obligations that you are more than capable, both legally and developmentally, of fulfilling yourself.
5.75 million dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to the potential of what you are sitting on, intellectual property wise, in your attempt to make that back via what I find to be the gaming industry equivalent of frivolous litigation.
Fire your lawyers and hire more developers. Instead of suing Interplay, how about you BUY them and add them to your own efforts? That is my advice, and maybe in 2010 you'll actually have something to show the world (Fallout Online would be what we're waiting for) that we'll give a damn about. After Wet and Rogue Warrior, its going to take a bit of a miracle to pull yourselves out of the hole you've dug. And you've got the proverbial gaming "Arc of the Covenant" sitting in your IP warehouse. You just won't use it.
Even the name makes you stop and think back on all the great games they came out with. The development house that brought you all 4 versions of The Elder Scrolls [http://www.elderscrolls.com/home/home.php], and Fallout 3 [http://fallout.bethsoft.com/index.html]. Its hard to really ever consider them capable of falling on their faces, but it seems if any year was to be the year of fumbled passes and bad public relations for this once godlike developer, its 2009.
Not only were Bethsoft's only two real offerings to the gaming market for 2009 horrible beyond the point of understanding, with Wet [http://wet.bethsoft.com/?fbid=38VIDFPWZid](Metacritic Rating of 69) being an action oriented console quasi rail shooter that had more control issues than a Russian space station, they also produced and released Rogue Warrior [http://www.roguewarrior.com/](Metacritic Rating of 26), in conjunction with Rebellion Software, regardless of Rebellion's professional history of making shoddy ass games at best.
And if that weren't enough, after purchasing the licensing rights for Fallout from Interplay to produce Fallout 3, which is arguably the game of the year for 2008, Bethsoft went on to pursue litigation [http://kotaku.com/5357724/bethesda-sues-interplay-over-fallout-trademark-infringement] against Interplay for Interplay's release of the Fallout games they produced under a one box solution, for, of all things, trademark infringement...and then, to add insult to injury to all us gamers and game fans out here, added a failure to comply charge and breach of contract [http://kotaku.com/5357724/bethesda-sues-interplay-over-fallout-trademark-infringement] to said lawsuit, further suing Interplay for their slow progress and production of an agreed upon Fallout MMO.
Now, I don't know about you but I pretty much figured that if we could get a Fallout MMO that actually had IP rights to the Fallout intellectual property, I could probably die a very old and happy gamer. But no, instead of realizing that Interplay was going to be unable to make good on its commitment and use the trademark intellectual property Bethesda reportedly paid 5.75 million dollars for to develop a Fallout Online for real, the folks at Bethsoft felt it was better to invest all that money they made off the sale of Fallout 3 on marketing Wet, Rogue Warrior and hiring a battery of lawyers to sue Interplay, and thusly, made no progress on anything and went pretty much the entire year of 2009 offering no new titles of any note to the industry.
Now, far as I'm concerned that is a pretty major chip in the foundation of trust Bethesda Softworks has built with the gaming demographic over the last ten years. And it shows a massive lack of pragmatic adaptation to situations as they change.
Bethesda has the right to make one of the most anticipated MMO's of all time, but refuses to do so themselves because they made some legal agreement with Interplay to do it for them. But rather than backing up, and taking over the project themselves as soon as it became obvious Interplay was not going to be able to produce on their end of the agreement and making themselves the equivalent of 200 oil tankers worth of cash, monthly, once said project is completed, they'd rather knock off a couple of horrendously produced titles that make Electronic Arts look like a responsible producer by comparison, and spend whats left of the Fallout 3 profits on suing the very developer that created the franchise in the first place.
I find this to be an appalling and rather under scrutinized fall from grace by one of the most enigmatic development houses in the industry of the last decade. Sure plenty of sites have reported on the lawsuit itself, but no ones really analyzed it for how absolutely asinine it is.
You'd rather sue someone that cannot produce a Fallout MMO, than use the legal rights you've purchased and that you're suing them under to do it yourselves Bethesda?
As a gamer I'm disappointed and find my faith in your products heavily tarnished by this, especially by that piece of crap Rogue Warrior that I actually paid $60.00 USD for, simply because Bethesda's name was on the box and I assumed that given their development standards and the IP the game was franchised from, it could have been a very interesting change of direction for Bethesda themselves, only to be greeted by 2 hours of random profanity from Mickey Rourke and level design that would be considered laughable even by Half Life 2 standards.
You dropped the ball this year Bethesda, and you did it while sitting on one of the most hotly anticipated properties in the whole of the gaming industry, all so you could litigate against Interplay for failure to comply with contractual obligations that you are more than capable, both legally and developmentally, of fulfilling yourself.
5.75 million dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to the potential of what you are sitting on, intellectual property wise, in your attempt to make that back via what I find to be the gaming industry equivalent of frivolous litigation.
Fire your lawyers and hire more developers. Instead of suing Interplay, how about you BUY them and add them to your own efforts? That is my advice, and maybe in 2010 you'll actually have something to show the world (Fallout Online would be what we're waiting for) that we'll give a damn about. After Wet and Rogue Warrior, its going to take a bit of a miracle to pull yourselves out of the hole you've dug. And you've got the proverbial gaming "Arc of the Covenant" sitting in your IP warehouse. You just won't use it.
