Troika and the Fallout rights - where did I read that?

[Whipporowill]

I'm tired of useless datamining. Can't seem to find the article/quote about Troika having possible backing from a publisher (in case of Troika getting their hands on Fallout) before Beth bought the rights. Anyone have better memory than me and can link me up?

 

[Greatatlantic]

I can't remember Troika ever claiming they "had" a publisher, I do remember them saying plenty of times that publishers were "interested", especially the developers of said publishers, but not so much interest on the part of the marketing people. So it is quite possible that getting the lisence to make a Fallout game, with the instant branding that appeals to marketing people, would have assurred Troika a publisher. But thats mostly speculation on my part. Anyways, beyond asking at NMA whose more likely to keep track of that sort of thing, I think game banshee had some interviews with Boyarsky about this subject.

 

[Jora]

As far as I know, no developer ever said anything about the subject. Briosafreak started the rumour.

 

[Deacdo]

Troika said they tried to get the rights to the Fallout franchise, but the price was too high.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Best I have is this on TA. Nothing was ever confirmed I don't think but there were a bunch of rumours at the time that Troika, wich backing from Activision, were going for the license until I think Activision pulled out or they were simply outbid by Bethesda.

There's also a mention in last years' 2004 in review on the Codex.

 

[Dhruin]

I think the rumour may have originated in part with me. I know someone who was involved in the process of Troika organising funds for the bid. Frankly, I've forgotten the exact details (and didn't know a lotl by any means) but they got a certain amount (VC or similar, I guess) and were hopeful of being successful. Bethsoft came in at the last minute with a bigger number and Troika just couldn't get to that amount.

 

[roguefrog]

Ouch.

Grand Theft IP

 

[Shagnak]

Bethsoft came in at the last minute with a bigger number and Troika just couldn't get to that amount.

Damn
So close (?)

 

[Vault Dweller]

I think the rumour may have originated in part with me. I know someone who was involved in the process of Troika organising funds for the bid. Frankly, I've forgotten the exact details (and didn't know a lotl by any means) but they got a certain amount (VC or similar, I guess) and were hopeful of being successful. Bethsoft came in at the last minute with a bigger number and Troika just couldn't get to that amount.

Yep. Troika had an arrangement with Interplay, but when Beth offered more, that arrangment was quickly forgotten by a certain Frenchman of questionable ethics. It was also stated that if Troika had the license, a certain publisher would have ok'ed the development contract. Without the license, an unknown PA project wasn't very appealing. The end.

 

[roguefrog]

Nooooo! That can't be true! That's IMPOSSIBLE!

*jumps into a pit of WTFNESS*

 

[fizzelopeguss]

He could of made up for past sins, and guaranteed himself a place in heaven if only he sold the rights to troika.

*tssk tssk* If there was any justice in this world then Satan would be a fallout fan

 

[Slylandro]

That's extremely lame. I've never done any auctioning before; wouldn't it be logical to extend the bidding time after each bid (i.e. so if Bethsoft bids 50k after Troika bid 40k, then the timer for the end of bidding is reset?)

 

[Micmu]

When it comes to cRPGs (esp. those with great reputation), business can be a real bitch.

 

[Drakron]

Well Interplay is in dire straits, my guess is Troika offer was inferior to Bethsoft offer (no wonder, Troika was a developer as Bethsoft is a publisher) ... my guess is Troika offer was for one game only as Bethsoft offer extends for three games, naturaly it was going to be higher.

And it was not auction, Interplay have yet to reach that ... they are all deals done at closed doors, even if you can know how much did it cost (since Interplay is a public company) you can only know how much did Troika offered if they disclose that information.

 

[Dhruin]

I don't think it was a matter of time as such - just that Bethsoft made an offer that was beyond Troika's financing. Again, it's been a while but I think they tried pretty desperately but their financier(s) wouldn't go that high and there was just no way to do it. Yes, I imagine Bethsoft would have been in a much better position for finance.

While Caen is a prick and it's a crying shame Troika didn't get it, I guess Caen had a duty to get the best value he could.

 

[Jinxed]

The license was sold for only one million bucks.

 

[Jora]

This, I think, is where the thing was first mentioned publicly and not in an e-mail or private message:

We need organization people, and talk this through.
Everybody post their opinion, and head for #fallout. Spazmo Dhruin knows the entire story, Troika almost got it.

 

[bryce777]

I think the rumour may have originated in part with me. I know someone who was involved in the process of Troika organising funds for the bid. Frankly, I've forgotten the exact details (and didn't know a lotl by any means) but they got a certain amount (VC or similar, I guess) and were hopeful of being successful. Bethsoft came in at the last minute with a bigger number and Troika just couldn't get to that amount.

Great, so basically the most mediocre dev team out there bashed the head in of one of the few companies that might possibly have put out a decent rpg, and for that matter a FALLOUT rpg.

That is pretty bad....

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Yep. Troika had an arrangement with Interplay, but when Beth offered more, that arrangment was quickly forgotten by a certain Frenchman of questionable ethics. It was also stated that if Troika had the license, a certain publisher would have ok'ed the development contract. Without the license, an unknown PA project wasn't very appealing. The end.

Activision wasn't willing to fork up enough bread, and the French are known for loving bread.

 

[Greatatlantic]

I have a hard time believing Troika could come up with any significant funds of their own, so their must have been a third party publisher backing them. Their games were relative successes, but not sort of success that gives large capital. Anyways, if the third party was Activision, or almost any other publisher, then you have to wonder under what restrictions they'd be forced to make Fallout 3 under. Simultaneous console releases, 3d, and real time would probably be very real possibilities. Of course, I still would trust Troika more then Bethsoft, even if the RPG isn't the format I and others here would prefer. And more than anything, it just makes sense, moral and development-wise, to let the original developers work on their IP.

Curse the frenchman and his cursed need for money. That was probably the breaking point, Bethseda offered more money upfront, which is all he cares about, since there is no gaurentee he'd still be around by the time Fallout 3 gets released for royalties to matter.

 

[roguefrog]

He didn't care who he was selling the license to, he just wanted the most amount of money for it. Thats business. What I really want to know is whether or not Bethsoft knew who they were outbidding. It feels like Troika didn't know what was what until it was too late.

 

[Jinxed]

So in essence, Beth killed Troika.

MSFD = BANNED

 

[Dhruin]

I had a quick look through some old emails. Again, a disclaimer that I only know what I was told. The finance was put together in a hurry and they (financiers) seem to have played it conservatively because of concerns over Iplay's potential brankrupty and the affect that might have on the IP (I guess they didn't have time to chase down all the legal ramifications?). They knew Bethsoft had a bid in (at least by the time I was told about it), so I guess Bethsoft probably knew Troika was in. I assumed originally that Bethsoft came in at the last minute but re-reading that's not clear cut - perhaps the urgency in the email was Troika running out of time to outbid Bethsoft. Dunno. There was obviously a scramble for some reason.

Getting further into conjecture, I was asked what I thought of Troika not doing FO3 but possibly doing "something else Fallout related". I don't know if that's a sign they knew they would lose the main rights and thought they might try to pursue something else or whether it's unrelated. Didn't Boyarsky float some other idea? Or am I imagining that?

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

So in essence, Beth killed Troika.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Disagree, Steve? Feel free to express yourself with more than an emoticon.

Grabbing the license may have been a good business decision (time will tell, but I hope it will bite Bethesda in the ass somehow), but it sure as fuck was one of the most immoral things I've ever heard of.

 

[Rosh]

Grabbing the license may have been a good business decision (time will tell, but I hope it will bite Bethesda in the ass somehow), but it sure as fuck was one of the most immoral things I've ever heard of.

As much as I hate saying so, but "ditto".

Face it, even after we have repeatedly pointed this out, Bethesda still hasn't really given any concrete reason or plans on what they intend to do with the Fallout license, so doubly there really isn't any reason for the Fallout fans to trust Bethesda for that matter, or ever given this. That is why, in part, Bethesda isn't really respected much at NMA besides the fact that none of their games even remotely approach P&P RPG gameplay. That kind of business dealing puts them a little more than metaphorically in the same boat as Herve in regards to ethics. The least they could have done after that was try to pull some good face and explain themselves.

Bethesda doesn't owe us anything? HAH!