Duck and Cover writes that Interplay has kicked up a Fallout Online website, complete with beta registration, although the Flash seems to be drowning under the weight of traffic at the moment.

The first actual screenshots of Interplay's Fallout Online codenamed "Project V13" have been published by the Fallout fansite Duck and Cover.

We've stopped covering MMOs but I'm sure some are still interested in Project V13 / Fallout Online and the various associated shennigans.  Duck and Cover has four new pieces of concept art.

Law shenanigans about to start between Interplay & Bethesda over FOOL licence.

Financial papers from Interplay suggest that Bethesda might sue the struggling publisher over its planned Fallout MMO.

Interplay retained the rights to make online games based on Fallout when it sold the rest of the rights to Bethesda back in 2004. However, it seems there were certain conditions involved in this - conditions which Bethesda claims have not been met.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing (spotted by Fallout fansite No Mutants Allowed), Bethesda reckons Interplay is in breach of their agreement because it had not commenced "full scale development" of the Fallout MMO by April 4 2009, and has not secured enough funding for the game. Interplay, naturally, disagrees.

"Interplay recently received notice that Bethesda Softworks, LLC ("Bethesda") intends to terminate the trademark license agreement between Bethesda and Interplay which was entered into April 4, 2007 for the development of Fallout MMOG," reads the filing.

"Despite the fact that no formal action is currently pending, Bethesda claims that Interplay is in breach of the trademark license agreement for failure to commence full scale development of same by April 4, 2009 and to secure certain funding for the MMOG. Interplay adamantly disputes these claims... If Bethesda ultimately prevails and cancels the trademark license agreement, Interplay would lose its license back of the Fallout MMOG."

Masthead Studios (Earthrise) involved on Project V13 according to Gamespot.

Now, though, it seems that Interplay has deemed Project V13 too big a title to handle on its own. This morning, the Irvine, California-based company announced it has "signed a binding letter of intent" with Masthead Studios "to fund the development of Project V13." Under the terms of the deal, Interplay will oversee a collaboration between its own dev team and Masthead's on the title, using the Bulgarian studio's toolset. Currently Masthead is working on Earthrise, another postapocalyptic MMOG also set after World War III, slated for release later this year.

If Project V13 is a success, it will prove a remarkable reversal of fortune for Interplay. A leading publisher during the 1990s, it fell on hard times during the current decade, with its parent company, Titus Interactive, declaring bankruptcy in 2005. In 2004, the publisher suffered a series of misfortunes and was temporarily shut down by state labor officials, threatened with eviction, and had its Web site go offline. The previous year, it closed down its award-winning Black Isle Studios, the refugees from which went on to form Alpha Protocol developer Obsidian Entertainment.

The first piece of artwork of the Fallout Online game in development by Interplay is now available, according to the German site PCGames. The concept has been made by Natiq Aghayev who was recruited by Interplay to work on Project V13, the working title for Fallout Online.

Thanks Avantenor for letting us know.