This year marks the 15th anniversary of Fallout: New Vegas, the beloved spin-off that was developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Bethesda hasn’t entrusted the franchise to many other developers, and according to studio boss Todd Howard, Obsidian was the only choice to take on New Vegas.
“They were the only choice,” Howard told Game Informer (via GamesRadar). “They had done something similar with [Star Wars] Knights of the Old Republic 2, and we knew them really well. We knew we were going onto Skyrim, the franchise was back, but we knew there was going to be a long break until Fallout 4–how can we keep this going?”
Obsidian was founded by ex-Interplay and Black Isle Studios devs who previously worked on the original Fallout as well as a canceled version of Fallout 3. That made the studio a natural home for New Vegas. Howard also said that the only note Bethesda had ahead of development was to focus on the game’s warring factions and the players’ ability to choose between them.
“The thing that made New Vegas special was the ferocious focus on choice-and-consequence gameplay,” added John Gonzalez, the lead creative designer for New Vegas. “It’s all about allowing the player to have tremendous amounts of narrative impact, narrative control.”
Celebrity gamer–and the voice of New Vegas’ ghoul mechanic, Raul Alfonso Tejada–Danny Trejo recently demanded a New Vegas remaster. For now, there’s only a pricey Fallout: New Vegas 15th anniversary collector’s bundle coming in June 2026 that’s retailing for $155. And that’s only for PC users.
Howard has remained elusive about the status of Fallout 5, which isn’t expected to arrive until well after The Elder Scrolls 6. But he has said that Fallout is “the franchise that we’re doing the most in right now.”
The current second season of Prime Video’s Fallout series is set in and around New Vegas.
