Todd Howard, the franchise director of Fallout at Bethesda Game Studios, has debunked a long-running theory from fans tied to Fallout: New Vegas. As the years have passed, New Vegas has arguably become the most popular Fallout game in history. Despite this, the game wasn’t developed by those at Bethesda, but instead by Obsidian Entertainment. As a result, many fans have theorized that Bethesda developers may have come to resent or be jealous of those within Obsidian for releasing a title that has been more beloved than Fallout 3 or Fallout 4. According to Howard, however, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Speaking to Windows Central, Howard responded to these longtime talks from fans about a rivalry between Bethesda and Obsidian. Howard said that this conjecture is essentially fiction, as creators within both companies have great respect and admiration for one another. As a result, Howard explained that the two have been looking for ways to work with one another for quite a long time in a way that made sense for both studios. Now, that time has finally come, as Bethesda recently announced that it would be working on a brand-new Fallout game in tandem with Obsidian.
“I appreciate some of the fan chatter, but behind the scenes, there’s a huge amount of like mutual respect,” Howard said of the relationship between the two studios. “We’re always kind of wondering if we could find a way to work together in the right way. […] You sort of say, is there a way or a window or a pocket where we could do something together that really, really made sense? And so we’re super excited about the opportunity, working together.”
While Bethesda and Obsidian working with each other is quite an exciting proposition, it sounds as though this new Fallout title is still very far away. This decision for Bethesda and Obsidian to partner with one another is a recent move within Xbox, which means that work on this Fallout game has only just gotten off the ground. As a result, the game likely won’t be revealed to the public for many more years, with its release even further off.
In the interim, however, Bethesda recently confirmed that it was in the process of remastering Fallout: New Vegas. This revamp of New Vegas is something that Fallout fans have been requesting for years, which makes it one of the most exciting projects that Bethesda has in the pipeline. Remastering New Vegas also indicates that the new project Bethesda and Obsidian are creating could be New Vegas 2, which is a hugely thrilling prospect. Outside of this potential, a remaster of Fallout 3 and a new mainline entry, Fallout 5, are known to be in development as well.
