In 2023, Fallout’s creator, Tim Cain, uploaded a video explaining which country dropped the first nukes in the Fallout universe. It was revealed that it was China that fired first, which put to rest the assumptions made by many over the game’s twenty-plus-year history.
Now, in an all-new video, Tim Cain has doubled down on his confirmation, explaining in more depth why China fired first. It’s lore that is mostly understood by die-hard fans, but it’s always nice to get a little more of a backstory for a universe so expansive and densely populated as Fallout’s.
China Fired First
Two years ago, Tim Cain confirmed that China dropped the first nuke in Fallout, kicking off the Great War and bringing about the destruction of the entire planet:
The reason we got nuked is: bio-weapons were illegal and somehow China found out we were doing FEV. And they were like, ‘You have to stop it.’ And we went, ‘Okay’. But all we did is move it.
In a new video, Cain once again touched on the topic and went into more depth about why China dropped the first wave of nukes on the United States:
China nuked first.
It’s pretty obvious from the game. This isn’t canon, but let me explain what I mean and why we thought that.
In the original game we had established that the US was doing bio-weapons research. We weren’t supposed to, we had signed a UN treaty saying we wouldn’t do that, and I think you can find that out in the game. China discovered that we were doing it, but how did they discover that?
Espionage.
We went, ‘Oops our bad we’ll stop doing it. But we just kept on doing it, we just moved the research to another base. It’s the hidden base where you discover ZAX the supercomputer.
They just nuked us. We nuked back, other countries nuked, because all anyone saw was missiles flying. China technically started it by firing the first nuke, but you could argue that technically the US started it by doing illegal bio-weapons research then lying about it multiple times.
It’s an expansion on what we already knew, but Fallout fans love this kind of lore, so they’ll eat it up (myself included).
In the video, Tim Cain goes on to talk about Fallout-themed tidbits, such as why Vault Suits look the way they do, and how some brands wound up being implemented in the universe. It’s a treasure trove for the game’s biggest fans, that’s for sure.
Let me know what your favorite piece of Fallout lore is on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Cronus Zen users are being banned from Battlefield 6
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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