"This is a pre-alpha tech demo from 2003," read the initial post at NMA by Brother None. "The combat is pretty much unimplemented (sucky realtime only), the graphics are really basic."

"Don't be disappointed that it doesn't offer a full night's worth of gameplay (though in true Fallout style, it offers a lot of different paths to victory)," noted Brother None, who later linked to a set of instructions for the demo. "Also in true Fallout style, the demo is very, very buggy. Expect frequent crashes."

Development on Fallout 3 / Van Buren ceased on December 8, 2003, when the Interplay-owned Black Isle Studios was unexpectedly shut down. In 2004, Bethesda Softworks licensed the rights to Fallout from Interplay to develop its own version of Fallout 3. Bethesda then purchased the Fallout property from Interplay for $5.75 million last month, and plans to publicly debut its version of Fallout 3 with a teaser trailer in early June.