The history of the Fallout games is a complicated one, but it was Bethesda's almost $6 million offer that ensured it would be the steward of the franchise, no matter what it's original creators might have hoped for.
The Fallout IP was originally owned, published, and created by Interplay, whose internal Black Isle Studios made Fallout 2. Interplay licensed the franchise to Bethesda, but hit dire financial straits in the mid-2000s and was forced to sell assets in order to pay its staff. According to Brian Fargo, co-founder of Interplay, "the only asset they really had to sell was Fallout."
