Interplay president Eric Caen revealed in the latest issue of Edge magazine that the Fallout MMORPG Fallout Online will launch in the second half of 2012 (via Eurogamer).The report also reaffirms plans for a beta test earlier in the year.

"We have a beta scheduled for 2012, with the commercial launch in the second half of 2012," Eurogamer reports Caen said. He explained that "We have 90 people working on it. Even in January 2009, you were already able to move across the world."

He also comments on Bethesda's Fallout 3, saying "We appreciate some portions of it, and we're not necessarily fans of everything. I think they miss a lot of the humour, and the fans seem to agree with that." Caen went on to say that "Fallout 3 was a little bit too serious--that's definitely not where we're going. Our Fallout MMOG will be extremely funny. At the same time, an MMOG must be a lot deeper than a standalone game. It's not a shooting game we're making. You can shoot, but it's a very small portion of the game. The game itself is about reconstructing the world."

Caen also explained that we've seen so little of Fallout Online because of Interplay's legal battle with Bethesda--who owns Fallout--over the MMO rights and Fallout re-releases, saying that "anything we show will help Bethesda in their fight."

Developed internally at Interplay with help from Earthrise developer Masthead Studios, Fallout Online is slated to launch on PC in the second half of 2012. Apparently, Interplay plans to rack up one million subscribers--no mean feat. If you want a shot at playing in the beta, sign up at the official Fallout Online website.