In 2004, Bethesda announced that it had licensed from faltering publisher Interplay the rights to make additional games based on the acclaimed post-apocalyptic RPG series Fallout. Just prior to that, Interplay had announced that it would be retaining the rights to produce an MMO set in the Fallout world. Now, Interplay has filed a proposal to the SEC detailing specific financial plans for such an MMO. The project is estimated at a total of $75 million, with $5 million for preproduction, $40 million for production, and $30 million for the launch. Development is stated to begin in January 2007, with the game launching in July 2010.

Interplay hopes to achieve a userbase of 1 million within a year of launch, with the game becoming profitable within the second year and bringing annual income of $50 million starting in the third year. No specific development studio was named, though the presentation notes that Interplay management has had experience with World of Warcraft while working at Vivendi. In one amusing note, the company points out that "due to the subject matter of a post apocalyptic world resulting from the Cold War (1945-1990), all consumers 20 and older will have some ties to Fallout and will be intrigued to find out in this virtual world: 'and what if the nuclear war really had happened?'"