For years, fans of the Fallout video game series have hoped and prayed that they might someday get the chance to play an honest-to-goodness, full-blown Fallout MMO. Hopes were reinvigorated after the long-awaited release of Fallout 3, the critically-acclaimed, open-ended and story-driven FPS/RPG hybrid. But things were getting sketchy. Back in 2007, Bethesda Softworks bought the entire IP from Interplay, which originally owned and developed Fallout and Fallout II, via Black Isle Studios. Shortly after, Bethesda licensed the rights to develop a Fallout MMO back to Interplay, and everything finally seemed to be going in the right direction.

Until last April, that is. Bethesda claimed Interplay wasn't fufilling its end of the deal, which included a development start deadline and raising funding to back that development. But it wasn't until just last week that Bethesda actually took action, filing a lawsuit against Interplay for trademark infringement, on the grounds of breaching its agreement. It seems that for now, the future of the Fallout MMO is uncertain. But as sources like The Vault point out, at least we received a piece of concept art from Natiq "Defonten" Aghayev on the MMO's art development team. Check it out here.