New Vegas Dev Obsidian "Did Wrong"

The story of how Fallout: New Vegas come to be is already legendary, but new reports suggest that Bethesda has been pretty tight-lipped about what they think the game has gone wrong. The news reignited long-standing debates about a partnership between the two famous RPG developers. While the public loved the title, the history behind it Fallout: New Vegas' the work is full of stories of internal friction and different visions. As more information comes to light, it's clear that the relationship between the creator and the brand owner was much more complicated than anyone expected.

Long before modern consoles were the main focus, Fallout franchise was a PC-only isometric role-playing game developed by Interplay and its in-house team, Black Isle Studios. When that studio eventually closed, many of the original creators formed Obsidian Entertainment. Meanwhile, Bethesda acquired the rights to the property and successfully turned it into a first-person blockbuster with its third numbered entry. Because Bethesda was busy working The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimdecided to bring in veterans from Obsidian to create a spin-off using their existing assets, giving them an incredibly short 18 months to complete the job. Although Fallout: New Vegas was plagued by bugs at launch, slowly becoming a cult hit that many fans now claim is the best the series has ever been.

Fallout 5 exclusivity leaves players frustrated

The debate over Fallout 5's exclusivity is already a bittersweet one, as longtime fans face the possibility of being shut out of the next chapter in the franchise.

The controversial fall of New Vegas

According to a recent interview with former senior designer Chris Avellon on the TKs-Mantis YouTube channel, Bethesda apparently detailed their complaints in the visual presentation. Avellone shared that the presentation included more than minor issues. According to him, “They had a whole PowerPoint. Not even about DLC, they had a whole PowerPoint about all the things Obsidian did wrong.” He sarcastically described the meeting as “hugely morale-boosting”, noting that the developers felt they had delivered a quality game. “I thought we made a good product for you that stuck Fallout in the public mind,” Avellone stated, adding that it was unfair because Bethesda “reaped a lot of rewards for it” while being visibly unhappy during the review.

Technical friction ran even deeper, leading to a confrontation over performance and the future of the game's code. Avellone recalled an interview in which he was asked if the game would hit 30 frames per second, which he said was the baseline. However, Bethesda's CTO later scolded him for making that promise. “I sat there and smiled and took it,” he said, while inwardly wondering, “Why do you have a trigger motor that can't run 30 frames per second and then call it fame?” Avellone also questioned the possibility of a remaster, stating “I don't think Bethesda has the engineering know-how to do a remaster. New Vegas at all.” Part of this stems from the last milestone when Obsidian was supposed to deliver the source code for $10,000. “For reasons unknown to me, but I suspect, Feargus [Urquhart] decided not to cash in on that milestone and didn't deliver,” Avellone claimed, suggesting that the studio head may have felt that New Vegas experience robbed him of X amount of money” and wanted to limit the publisher's future control.

Fallout New Vegas Benny pointing a gun at the player

Review scores have also played a huge role in breaking up the relationship, especially when it comes to post-launch expansions and contract bonuses. Avellone admitted that the “Dead Money” DLC was designed with a survival horror vibe that may have been too far removed from the core experience for some players. “The reason I make these expressions about it and hesitate is that despite what I thought would be great Falloutit was so different from the core experience that it was obviously a huge problem for a lot of people,” he explained. Bethesda reportedly cited the lower critic scores for those expansions as the primary reason they didn't want to continue working with Obsidian. “Bethesda used the DLC review scores against us, like why they didn't want to keep doing things with us, even though they wanted to do things with us anyway,” he said as well. So whatever.”

GameRant Quiz

Easy (15s) Medium (10s) Hard (5s)

In the end, dreams of a sequel or a new project elsewhere never materialized despite the initial creative excitement. Before the relationship cooled, the team was already dreaming of future installments. “We still thought we could do it New Vegas 2or whatever it would be called,” Avellone revealed, but noted that those plans “quickly evaporated” once Bethesda decided that future games would be handled internally. One particularly exciting idea was a game set in New Orleans, inspired by a comic called Grendel. “The vibe was so cool,” Avellone recalled, stating that “as soon as I read it… Man, I want to do it: ' Fallout New Orleans So bad.” While still hopeful about the location's potential, he expressed doubts about returning to the series, saying a sequel “won't happen for at least the next six years, if ever.”