Bethesda buys id Software

[Purkake]

The UT franchise died after UT99.

 

Word.

 

But it's still THE online deathmatch game, Quake 3 be damned.

[bhlaab]

2k4 was a good improvement but entirely pointless. For a while it seemed like they expected UT to be the FPS version of Madden. Guess UT3 threw a wrench into that.

[Syraxis]

2k4 was a good improvement but entirely pointless.

 

I don't know about entirely pointless, onslaught mode was teh sex.

[Pidesco]

Unreal was an unforgettable experience when it came out in 1998. But I wouldn't want to play it these days.

 

Anyways... I hope we will see more stuff from Epic coming beyond Gears of War. A new IP for a nice change?

 

 

As far as I can recall, Unreal was considered, at the time, a pretty lackluster game with an absolutely incredible engine.

[Oner]

As far as I can recall, Unreal was considered, at the time, a pretty lackluster game with an absolutely incredible engine.

Nope, it was praised for everything except the net code for multiplayer.

[MacCorp]

According to an online article, id Software abandoned "Duke Nukem 4". After suffering from a serious blow economically, they tried to find another publisher. Since they could not find a partner, they decided to let the franchise come to an end. I read the article a few months ago, so I do not know if anything has changed. Bethesda makes pretty good games, so maybe they can revieve id's older franchises.

Edited June 28, 2009 by MacCorp

[Aristes]

There will be Duke Nukem 4evar!

[Oner]

According to an online article, id Software abandoned "Duke Nukem 4". After suffering from a serious blow economically, they tried to find another publisher. Since they could not find a partner, they decided to let the franchise come to an end. I read the article a few months ago, so I do not know if anything has changed. Bethesda makes pretty good games, so maybe they can revieve id's older franchises.

Don't you mean Doom 4?

[Hurlshort]

Commander Keen revival is imminent.

[bhlaab]

According to an online article, id Software abandoned "Duke Nukem 4". After suffering from a serious blow economically, they tried to find another publisher. Since they could not find a partner, they decided to let the franchise come to an end. I read the article a few months ago, so I do not know if anything has changed. Bethesda makes pretty good games, so maybe they can revieve id's older franchises.

 

I think you're confused about a couple things

[bhlaab]

Commander Keen revival is imminent.

 

Not sure, but I think Tom Hall owns keen now

[Morgoth]

What is Tom Hall up to anyways. Wasn't he the lead designer of famed Anachronox? What would he possibly do with that ****ty Commander Keen license?

[Oner]

What is Tom Hall up to anyways.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KingsIsle_Entertainment

Great, another pro

wasted on an MMO.

This isn't fine,

and caused me to rhyme.

[Hurlshort]

What is Tom Hall up to anyways.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KingsIsle_Entertainment

Great, another pro

wasted on an MMO.

This isn't fine,

and caused me to rhyme.

 

Looks like he is making youth orientated games, which is actually probably a perfect set-up for an eventual Commander Keen revival. I can see it being a fun E-rated game.

[Mamoulian War]

Zenimax acquired Rage publishing rights from EA Partners...

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/26521/Z...ck_From_EAP.php

[Masterfade]

The decision to delay Brink to Q3 2010 makes sense now.

[mkreku]

Bethesda also recently lost the Interplay case: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/beth...ay-court-battle

 

So Interplay lives on to fake develop a Fallout MMO, Bethesda and id are making a love child and all is well with the world.

[Masterfade]

Bethesda also recently lost the Interplay case: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/beth...ay-court-battle

 

So Interplay lives on to fake develop a Fallout MMO, Bethesda and id are making a love child and all is well with the world.

 

not really, Bethesda failed to score a preliminary injunction, that's all.

Interplay's chance now would be to rush the game out before the court rules on the case proper.

[cronicler]

(Disclaimer: not sure if cross-site quoting of a user is ok. If it isn't feel free to delete this post)

This thing is really becoming a ping pong ball, I am not savvy enough to decipher the legal speech but over at the NMA, user orionquest was explaining the stance of Interplay in somewhat layman's terms some time ago;

 

...Bethesda prevented Interplay from displaying any of their work on Fallout MMO to the gaming media, investors and possible creditors.

 

This lead to the discrediting of Interplay's Fallout MMO effort by everybody including myself. We all had doubts in the back of our minds, thinking that it might be a ruse.

 

This breeds uncertainty which is a killer for a public company since it effects perception of the company and its net worth via the sum total of its outstanding common stock.

 

Had investors and creditors seen actual screen shots and demos and proof of concepts and seen the buzz generated by the media that rides the coat tails of the Mega Selling Fallout 3, Interplay's stock would have easily soared from where they are to about a dollar for example.

 

This would have taken the value of the company from about 6-7 million to a 100 million plus market cap.

 

The way the public markets work is you can issue a secondary to enthusiastic investors and be able to raise more than 30 million dollars easily since the revenue generated from Fallout MMO will dawrf the current market cap of Interplay by more than 10 times.

 

Some are missing the point of how public markets work. Companies issue secondaries all the time. The Global banking system temporarily saved its hide from a meltdown by having the individual banks and insurance companies and GM dilute their shareholders in raising more cash in the capital markets in order to get back on their feet and prosper.

 

Raising cash this way happens all the time. But investors need a good reason the fork over 30 million in money in exchange for convertible bonds and discounted shares and warrants.

 

What Bethesda did was stonewall Interplay's chances of getting vital buzz generated to attract investors and creditors to fork over a measly 30 million dollars for a project that could generated 50-100 million in revenue in its first year alone.

 

Bethesda has savvy executives who actually know how the capital markets work and they made sure Interplay never had their chance to even announce they were actually working on Fallout MMO when all signs point to yes all along.

 

The deadline for the availability of 30 million for the project was in April of this year but Interplay had been working on the project for more than 1.5 years and they could have raised 30 million had Bethesda allowed them to say they were working on it.

 

Companies that are going down the drain were able to raise billions of dollars( GM anyone? It needs around 30 billion per year of tax payer money just to say they are break even broke)

 

The Federal Reserve even extended their aggressive lending program to anyone and everyone( It's easy when you run the banking system and can print money out of thin air and monetize it when no one can buy the bond collateral but I digress since that is for another forum....)

 

Interplay could have actually applied for a loan from the FED in exchange for collateral which would have been convertible notes that allow them to provide equity in return and or Fallout MMO proceeds.

 

Bethesda's deliberate intent of not giving Interplay the smallest chance to be able to even announce their project is clear intent to harm their contract partner and run the clock out and claim the rights back.

 

Bethesda would be less guilty in the eyes of the court had they allowed Interplay to announce the product, show the concept art, show video of a playable demo to everyone including the media to generate enough buzz to skyrocket the stock on hopes of riding the coat tails of the sales of Fallout 3 so that big investors can step up to the plate and buy a 30+ million dollar secondary offering.

 

Interplay's market cap went from 1 million to over 30 million alone on the 2006 announcement of the Fallout MMO project( Investor presentation)

 

Now that we know that they have the goods for the MMO and Bethesda did not allow them to even post anything about it on their site and even tried to say that Project V13 violates their trademark when they do not own a Project V13 trademark,

 

This will be seen as very damaging to the Health of Interplay by the courts. The last thing we need is for a judge to sanction the crushing of a small company with mouths to feed by a greedy conglomerate hell bent on global gaming domination.

 

The atmosphere of working people losing their jobs in the millions is very bad right now for Bethesda's position, even with their Nazi style tactics "protecting" the intellectual property they got for little more than a song from a struggling company....

 

 

Now, I am not sure how strong this kind of defence would be but I found this to be a completely different take/angle on the situation.

Also I am not sure what you mean by saying "Interplay lives on to fake develop a Fallout MMO", Mkreku. Granted I like neither of the 2 corporations (?, Firms? whatever they are defined) but calling either of them false is a moot point at this moment. The whole franchise has already been sacrificed to the altar of lowest common denominator.

 

 

On a semi related note, I find it really comic and ironic to see some new and completely unrelated titles like Borderlands, Uncharted 2, (Edit:) Assasins Creed 2 that either have more in common with the general feel and humor of the old game or are just plainly superior in the gameplay department in a time where the bar has been so lowered that you can basically turn out an average game by using a stock 2006-2008 engine and random map generator

Edited December 17, 2009 by cronicler

[entrerix]

borderlands is just as lowest common denominator as fallout 3... or was that your point?

 

i like both games, but saying either is a tenth as awesome as fallout 1 is heresy and such speaker shall be burned.