UPDATE: comment from GOG.com.
According to Gamasutra, the rights holder and developer behind Fallout 3, Bethesda, has filed a complaint in the US District Court of Maryland calling for a halt on Interplay’s production and distribution of the Fallout Trilogy – including Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics.
While Interplay is permitted to continue to sell its pre-existing Fallout titles, Bethesda says it has consistently failed to seek approval for its packaging, advertising and promotional images, which it is required to do as part of an agreement signed in 2007.
The plaintiff argues that this lack of approval has led to consumers confusing the original trilogy of games with Fallout 3. In addition, Bethesda claims that licensing the original Fallout titles to digital distribution sites Steam and GOG.com is a further breach of the contract. GOG.com has declined to comment saying it is an issue between Bethesda and Interplay, however, the digital distributor told us that it has not been contacted directly by either company over the future of the titles.
Interplay’s Fallout MMO is also being disputed, with Bethesda looking to terminate the trademark licensing agreement. Bethesda has argued that Interplay has failed to meet the required conditions in order to continue to hold onto the Fallout license for its MMO project. Interplay has been at work on an MMO since 2007 entitled 'Project: V13' which many have speculated to be its forthcoming Fallout game.
The MMO agreement requires that Interplay be in full-scale development of the MMO by April 4 2009 and have secured at least USD30 million in funding.
Bethesda became the sole owner of the Fallout IP in 2007 after a USD5.75 million deal with Interplay.