In a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games, Todd Howard from Bethesda Game Studios talked about Fallout: New Vegas. Many will remember the beloved 2010 game developed by Obsidian Entertainment as the best in the series. There is also a sorted history that usually ignores the game.
The talk started when a fan asked about possible future projects involving Bethesda and Obsidian, both now part of Microsoft. Howard sounded like he had heard New Vegas too often in a certain context, one that we all may know. Everyone assumes that New Vegas is the stepchild of Bethesda and isn’t as loved as much as fans love it because a separate studio made it. It seems like that isn’t actually the case.
During a recent interview (found by PC Gamer), Howard praised Obsidian’s work on New Vegas, expressing admiration for the game and its developer. He also highlighted the significance of New Vegas to Bethesda and its community, acknowledging the enduring impact of the title. He didn’t give away any details about plans, but he did express his strong support for New Vegas and Obsidian.
“First I’ll say, [Obsidian] did an amazing job with New Vegas. And I’ll say to everybody, that’s a game that we published … and I would say Feargus [Urquhart], who runs Obsidian, is absolutely one of my favorite people in the videogame industry … New Vegas is a very, very important game to us, and our fans, we think they did an incredible job. If anything, the show is leaning into the events [of New Vegas].”
Todd Howard
There is a minor spoiler for the show that relates to New Vegas. Concerns arose when the show’s depiction of Shady Sands seemed to contradict established lore. Nonetheless, Howard rejected these claims, stating that the show’s creators do not plan to change the storyline of past games. If anything, this may be a development that continues the storyline or maybe clarifies things.
The interview shed light on the challenges of keeping a consistent storyline in the Fallout universe. With multiple titles featuring diverse narratives, such as the various endings in New Vegas, the team focuses on prioritizing in-game experiences, then official lore materials, and giving less importance to external content. We don’t know the official ending, but many theories exist.
We won’t spoil the show, but it does look like two endings were definitely not canon. Howard recognized the difficulties and explained that the team values player experiences and existing lore when creating the story.
“We have some answers there, but it’s hard. I’ll just admit—everybody realize, it’s hard to canonize, or say, ‘This is exactly how that game ended.’ And so, whenever we can, I like to avoid it: Don’t refute anything that happened, be careful when you’re specific about what happened. We want that game and what the players did to be their reality and truth.”
Todd Howard
We’ll have to wait for season 2 to see how much of players’ truths are canon and what isn’t.
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