Problems along the way
When Bethesda was still in its "baby" stage it was many concerned with creating sports games. Gridiron was a popular football game released in 1986, and it had a real-time physics engine in it as well. This was created by Christopher Weaver, who is the founder of Bethesda.
Around the same time EA (Electronic Arts) was developing Madden football, the most popular football game to date. EA paid a lot of money for John Madden's name and they enjoyed Bethesda's real-time physics. So, EA went to Bethesda and they came to an agreement: If EA publishes Bethesda's Gridiron games, then EA could use Bethesda's real-time engine for Madden.
When it came time for EA to publish Gridiron EA backed out of the deal and still continued to use the physics engine. Bethesda sued EA for $7.3 million claiming that the company halted cross-console release of Gridiron after incorporating many of its elements into their own John Madden Football. (Werner, 2011)
Around the same time EA (Electronic Arts) was developing Madden football, the most popular football game to date. EA paid a lot of money for John Madden's name and they enjoyed Bethesda's real-time physics. So, EA went to Bethesda and they came to an agreement: If EA publishes Bethesda's Gridiron games, then EA could use Bethesda's real-time engine for Madden.
When it came time for EA to publish Gridiron EA backed out of the deal and still continued to use the physics engine. Bethesda sued EA for $7.3 million claiming that the company halted cross-console release of Gridiron after incorporating many of its elements into their own John Madden Football. (Werner, 2011)