Fallout first began its life as a role-playing game series on the PC back in 1997. It was originally published by a company known as Interplay Entertainment, who then rode the wave of success from the title to create the sequels Fallout 2 and Fallout: Tactics. Interplay itself ran into difficulties in later years, and Bethesda Softworks eventually bought the franchise and went on to release the latest sequel, Fallout 3. However, the transaction wasn't all that simple, and two major conditions of the IP purchase were that Interplay must consult with Bethesda on matters regarding sales of the earlier games (so as to help avoid confusion with Bethesda's own Fallout 3) and for Interplay to continue working on a Fallout based Massively Multi-player Online Roleplaying Game. In September,
Bethesda declared that Interplay was in breach of these two conditions and filed a lawsuit.
Recently, Interplay has fired back with a counter-suit of its own. An Interplay stockholder by the name of
frymuchan has revealed details of Interplay's own legal retaliation. They are arguing that there has been no breach of contract with regards to sales of previous Fallout titles or their distribution with online services, and are seeking compensation for damage incurred as a result of Bethesda's withdrawal of support on the Fallout MMO in development.
As with any legal struggle between two large corporate entities, there is a lot of unique contractual interpretation going on on both sides to determine who is right and who is wrong. Interplay is currently in the midst of reviewing Bethesda's initial lawsuit before proceeding with further action on their own counter-suit.