Bethesda has purchased the rights to the Fallout intellectual property from Interplay, in a deal first reported on Gamasutra. The company is hard at work on Fallout 3. As part of the deal, Interplay retains the rights to produce their own MMORPG in the Fallout universe. The MMO has a budget of $30 million and Bethesda gets 12% of the sales and subscriptions from the title. The MMO must launch within four years or Interplay loses the rights, a clause that might cause some drama in 2011.

For more information, check out the article on Gamasutra.