Impact: The Fallout franchise was originally developed in the late 1990s by Black Isle Studios, a division of Interplay. At the time Interplay was an up-and-coming publisher going public on NASDAQ. However, Interplay struggled and was delisted. Black Isle Studios was closed in 2003. In 2006, Interplay announced it would try and make a comeback driven largely by a Fallout MMOG. However, beyond the MMOG, Interplay did not have the resources to focus on the Fallout franchise and Bethesda took over development and publishing of Fallout 3 and it became a hit upon its release in 2008. The Fallout franchise has become much more valuable with the success of Fallout 3. However, it appears that Interplay does not have the financial means to develop a high-end MMO. The MMO was the main reason that Bethesda gave Interplay a license so it is no surprise that they are now asking to cancel that license.