Fallout: New Vegas is one of those games that only seemed to rise in peoples’ esteem as time’s gone on—especially since it seems like a milestone marker for the last remnants of the series’ more oldschool CRPG spirit before Fallout 4 saddled gamers with a voiced protagonist.
But it’s a matter of public record that Obsidian wasn’t brought on for further projects—which, according to writer on the game and prolific videogame narrative guy Chris Avellone, was something Bethesda really hammered home.
During a recent interview with YouTube channel TKs-Mantis, Avellone made what I can only describe as a series of faces as his interviewer praised the New Vegas DLC Dead Money, which is infamous for stripping you of every belonging you own to build a more survival horror-esque atmosphere.
“The reason I’m making these expressions and hesitations about it is because—despite what I thought would be cool as an examination of Fallout, it was so different from the core experience that it was obviously a huge turn-off for a lot of people.”
And while TKs-Mantis tries to brush these concerns aside, Avellone insists that “when it comes to sales and reviews it matters—and also Bethesda used review scores against us for the DLCs for, like, why they didn’t want to keep doing things with us anyway. Even though they didn’t wanna keep doing things with us anyway. So whatever.”
His subsequent ought to be taken with a grain of salt, as he left Obsidian on bad terms with upper management in 2015, then encountered further controversy when allegations of sexual misconduct saw him removed from Dying Light 2 in 2020 (those charges were later dropped in 2023)—basically, he’s not got a lot of reason to mince or be careful with his words. Still, they’re nonetheless wild. According to Avellone, Bethesda raked Obsidian over the coals with slides.
“It was fun, it was fun—they had a whole powerpoint. Not even about the DLC, they had a whole powerpoint about all the things Obsidian did wrong, and we were like ‘wow!’ and they showed it to us. And we were like… ‘okay’. This is hugely morale-boosting.”
He continues: “I thought we [made] a good product for you guys that kept Fallout in the public consciousness, but you guys don’t seem very happy about it despite the fact you reaped a lot of the rewards for it.”
As far as Dead Money goes, Avellone says that he thinks “the vision for [a] survival horror experience … Was a little too different from the core experience of Fallout that was kind of a turn-off to people.” Which, hey, fair enough. I think it’s probably true that weird, novel experiences tend to age better, removed from the expectations that come as a package deal with most DLC.
Fallout 4 cheats: Nuclear codes
New Vegas console commands: Stacked deck
Oblivion console commands: Crisis controls
Skyrim console commands: Tune your Tamriel
Skyrim Anniversary Edition: What it includes
