Bethesda vs Interplay: Bethesda drops appeal

Sander

Sander

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According to Duck and Cover, Bethesda has dropped its appeal against Interplay after settling out of court. The details of the settlement have not been made public.<blockquote>The undersigned hereby moves that the above appeal be dismissed upon such terms as have been agreed to by the parties. FRAP 42(b). Undersigned counsel represents to the Court that all appellate counsel of record consent to this dismissal.

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Jennifer Quinn-Barabanov
Howard H. Stahl
Jennifer Quinn-Barabanov

STEPTOE & JOHNSON LLP</blockquote>This might mean Interplay is now free to continue development of their MMO Project V13. But depending on the exact terms of the settlement it could also mean Bethesda paid Interplay some fees to just finalize the purchase of Fallout.

UPDATE: Interplay filed a current report, which still doesn't clarify the resulting license state and, but does state - to my surprise - that Interplay is still pursuing its counterclaim, and that the dismissal is only in regards to Bethesda seeking to overturn the preliminary injunction. If that is indeed all that is being dismissed, then the earlier report is completely wrong in stating the entire case is over, as the rest of the case would continue.<blockquote>On April 21, 2010, Bethesda Softworks LLC (“Bethesda”) dismissed the appeal it filed seeking to overturn the Order of the Hon. Deborah K. Chasanow, Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, denying in all respects the motion filed by Bethesda to preliminarily enjoin Interplay Entertainment Corp. (“Interplay”) from continuing to sell FALLOUT®, FALLOUT® 2, FALLOUT® Tactics, and FALLOUT® Brotherhood of Steel and to prevent Interplay from creating a FALLOUT®-branded massively-multiplayer online game pending a final determination of the respective claims of Bethesda and Interplay on the merits, in the action entitled Bethesda Softworks LLC v. Interplay Entertainment Corp., Case No. 09-CV-2357(DKC). Interplay will continue to defend its rights and to pursue its Counter-Claims against Bethesda, for among other things, Breach of Contract and Declaratory Judgment and an award of damages, attorney fees and other relief.</blockquote>
 
Sander said:
This should mean Interplay is now free to continue development of their MMO Project V13.
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Should it? I don't see specified anywhere in the published bits that the settlement results in V13 moving forward, they only say it's settled. Maybe it's been settled by Bethesda giving Interplay some millions to stop working on V13?
 
You're headlining "Fallout MMO moves ahead!" That's speculation. Luckily most sites taking on the news so far seem to correct it, but earlier I've seen blatantly biased speculation from frymuchan make its way into "newssphere" via DaC. It's doubleplusungood.

PS: though in this case I was quoting Sander and thus the NMA frontpage, though I've tweaked the statement now.
 
If Bethesda chooses to continue to pursue making the MMO on their own then they will have double the risk of dual MMO's to be released by the same group of people, using basically the same engine.

It's better from a management perspective to allow Interplay and Masthead to develop Fallout MMO with milestone oversight by Bethesda so the Fallout MMO can actually be released before the Mayan calendar reset.

This way, a different MMO comes out instead of cookie cutter MMO hydra of Falloblivion.

Dropping their appeal and redacting their own COO's foot in his mouth statements about 4 years for an MMO will allow them to concentrate on actually making use of their 12% royalty from Fallout MMO instead of getting into it with a publisher that can offer them no collateral for winning other than the threat of a lawsuit if Bethesda dares to release a Fallout MMO 4 years from the day of a potential victory/successful appeal rejection day which puts us into the latter part of this decade towards 2016-2017 the way these two companies have so far delayed their preliminary court case hearings 3 times from march to may.

Looks like the Steptoe lawyers have some common sense in preventing Bethesda from a secondary humiliation in addition to further incriminating themselves by providing additional proof of their malicious pettiness in attempting to lawyer Interplay to death in a no win rehashed appeal.

Interplay's report of little cash was prior to their receiving the million dollar investment with an additional 750k future warrant purchase agreement.

This investment is also further proof that Interplay can use against Bethesda in a court of law in their persuasion of the Judge to rule for treble damages in Interplay's favor for having to put up with Bethesda's draconian media muzzling in advertising Fallout MMO and frivolous pursuit of a preliminary injunction.

Metaphorically speaking, Bethesda didn't even allow Interplay to get on the field let alone attempt to shoot at goal in order to see if they can or cannot develop the MMO.

They assumed that Interplay would fall on their faces and denied them even the simple inherent right to advertise they are genuinely working on Fallout MMO.

And when Masthead Studios gets in contact with Herve Caen in February of 2009, the game changes.

Why? Bethesda must now deal with their contract partner Interplay instead of continuously stonewalling them in the press and via their legal eagles and throwing a plague laced stone on both firms' glass houses.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1057232/000117091810000078/fm8k042110.htm
 
I didn't know Bethesda had that much appeal in the first place

Ahahahaha

sorry
 
orionquest said:
If Bethesda chooses to continue to pursue making the MMO on their own then they will have double the risk of dual MMO's to be released by the same group of people, using basically the same engine.
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That's a jump to conclusions. Again. Especially since, hilariously enough, you just described the production model of Fallout 3.

On the other hand, I would assume, that Bethesda's problem with FOOL stems from the fact that they fear it'll be a terrible product and bust, and thus hurt their franchise's value. They're fine sitting on the MMO license for now. Why not? They held out years before beginning the TES MMO. They're pretty patient.
There's no real reason to assume Bethesda wants the FOOL license to actually start production on FOOL in the near future.

orionquest said:
so the Fallout MMO can actually be released before the Mayan calendar reset.
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That's not happening, regardless.

orionquest said:
This way, a different MMO comes out instead of cookie cutter MMO hydra of Falloblivion.
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Oh yes. Because Bethesda has so much bad experience making cookie cutter hydra products with the Fallout li...oh wait.

To be honest, a lot of us speculated that Bethesda would simply buy out Interplay when the court case kept dragging. I have seen nothing that would make me assume anything other than that is what happened, which would be a limited victory for Interplay.

Edit: wait, what the heck is this?
On April 21, 2010, Bethesda Softworks LLC (“Bethesda”) dismissed the appeal it filed seeking to overturn the Order of the Hon. Deborah K. Chasanow, Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, denying in all respects the motion filed by Bethesda to preliminarily enjoin
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Bethesda dismissed only its appeal to the denial of preliminary injunction? That's a pretty big difference from dismissing the entire case.
 
Brother None said:
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So you seem to not be able to read what other people write either. Go back and read what I wrote and concentrate on the parts that I have stated especially the section about moving the opening of the court case back 3 times which would either indicate issues for both legal teams in getting their initial work done or both companies are working on resolving this outside the court. I believe based on the fact of delaying the court case from march till May, Fry has conjectured(I'm in agreement that signs do point to a settlement) that they are working on resolving the case outside of court and dropping the appeal was the first step, especially now that Interplay has a million plus in cash to duke it out. Bethesda was not expecting this.


Do further dissect my statements but do it with a fine tooth comb otherwise we'd be going down the path of Marbury row or is that Marbury fair and the sound of silence?
:)
 
Ah, so we're already moving from "Bethesda dropped the lawsuit" into "this looks like Bethesda is prepping to settle out of court"? That's a pretty big difference from the story as frymuchan handed it to Duck and Cover to begin with.

Leading another false story into the media? I thought we would've learned by now. Ah well, no skin off my back.
 
Everybody should have assumed that it is my opinion that the two parties should come to an agreement in order to move forward in releasing a Fallout MMO. It is the wisest and safest thing both parties can do from a business sense in order to generate the most revenue for them.

Let's face it, everybody knows that most of the top executives leading these firms are more interested in increasing cash flow than the art of making games.

If it is not obvious to the public based on the decline of the quality of gaming from the 90's to now then further clarification is needed.

The ability to manipulate the visual cortex is being refined continuously. Rarely does one get a game that makes one think it is more than dressed up eye candy.

Brainwashing works. That is why advertisements continue to increase in price. Business people have a knack towards brainwashing "consumers" into parting with their money.

The passion for making great games is lost on everybody except the most idealistic dreamers.


Anyways, back to the situation at hand:


Fry sent out a couple of court filed PDF files that when properly understood would lead one to believe that Bethesda's appeal of the Judge's refusal of granting a preliminary injunction decision was dropped.

My initial understand of reading the 2 files was that the lawsuit continued( unlike Fry and DAC's understanding)

This is why, in my first posting on this thread, I mentioned the delay of opening statements 3 times from march to may.

It is also why I stated "If Bethesda chooses to continue to pursue" rather than "had Bethesda continued to pursue" and why I linked to the SEC filing.

At the very least I must give Fry credit for continuing to vigilantly rummage the court filings looking for anything new.

The failure to understand verbose statements has led to many incorrect assumptions:

<

This lawsuit is over based on the latest filing. It isn't!

Bethesda's new lawyers can just rehash refried beans from previous lawyer's incorrect understanding of the contract. They couldn't and were smart enough to drop it.

The 7.5 million warrants grants for IPLY shares to Investment firm DotCorp were included in the original Million dollar investment. They were not!

Bethesda and the public at large thinking initially that this was an open and shut case slam dunk in favor of Bethesda. It isn't!

>

The inability of human beings( many of whom brainwashed and bred to think so highly of themselves that they develop a superiority complex that leads to actual inferiority) to properly understand basic statements whether in court documents, contracts, or other forms of expression, continues unabated.

The inability to process basic words is a dangerous thing but it's what makes the world go round.
 
The inability of human beings( many of whom brainwashed and bred to think so highly of themselves that they develop a superiority complex that leads to actual inferiority) to properly understand basic statements whether in court documents, contracts, or other forms of expression, continues unabated.
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Dude. Are you flaming fry and/or DaC?
 
I think he's a Cleveland Mark Blakemore to be honest.

frymuchan has posted here, but he left in a huff because we weren't happy about the first in this now long row of inexact information he feeds the Fallout community.
 
Brother None said:
The inability of human beings( many of whom brainwashed and bred to think so highly of themselves that they develop a superiority complex that leads to actual inferiority) to properly understand basic statements whether in court documents, contracts, or other forms of expression, continues unabated.
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Dude. Are you flaming fry and/or DaC?
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You couldn't be farther from the truth as to who you think I am. By the way you are lumped into the above post also for your intermittent thickheaded inability to understand someone's statement while simultaneously holding others to a standard where they should understand statements and court filings fully and mocking them for failing to do so every once in a while.

If I were to flame, it would be of the scorched earth "V For Vendetta" variety that would for example leave your blood boiling from the resultant psychologically traumatizing verbiage left as a searing reminder in your brain.

It would also likely get the forum locked up and or my avatar banned.

Just by reading this, your blood pressure's already risen above acceptable levels so we shall leave this at a cold war level status but I must advise towards seeking higher ground than the Les Pays-Bas when the Flooding commences.

We wouldn't want NMA-Fallout to lose one of its admins to earth changes now would we?

As a hint to who I am and to mimic an ancient statement: You can see my back but not my face :lol:
 
Brother None said:
That's a pretty big difference from the story as frymuchan handed it to Duck and Cover to begin with.
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Never, ever trust what Fry has to say. His posts are more along the line of wishful thinking and hopeful expectations that real facts.

As I experienced with my own Interplay lawsuit, he will make up facts to fabricate a palatable future.
 
uhhh.. so far as i understand it, the main case of beth vs iply is still going on

during the initial stages of this lawsuit, bethesda wanted a court ruling ordering iply to stop production of the MMO, and the judge ruled in favor of iply.

bethesda then initiated proceedures to appeal that ruling, and then dropped the appeal.

but the main case is still going forward, albeit slowly.
 
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