Author Update: This article has been amended for accuracy. We originally reported that the quote was obtained from a ‘now deleted’ post on social media, but we’ve since been advised that the content remains up for anyone to see and have adjusted the coverage to reflect that fact.
In a recent post on social media, former Fallout: New Vegas writer, designer, and co-founder of Obsidian Entertainment, Chris Avellone, made a scathing comment about Bethesda Game Studios. In 2010, Obsidian Entertainment released Fallout: New Vegas, widely considered the best Fallout game of all time.
Avellone was instrumental in the game’s creation, but he’d also worked on Fallout 2 when it was being pieced together by the Black Isle team in the late 1990s. He remains a legend in the Fallout space, and potentially one of the best-placed individuals to make the kind of statement that he did.
Chris Avellone Bags on Bethesda Game Studios
In a comment on X, Chris Avellone made a lengthy statement about Bethesda Game Studios’ treatment of the Fallout series.
He wrote:
I don’t think Bethesda hates Fallout, they just don’t fully understand its roots and arguably, don’t care – they own the franchise, and they just want to do their spin on Fallout and make that the norm.
This usually translates into a colorful, shallow theme park (with some interesting DLC exceptions, like Far Harbor, Point Lookout – and I was one of the ones who liked The Pitt) – still, theme parks are fun for some folks, so if people enjoy it, that’s fine with me.
As for me, I don’t hate Bethesda, there are things they do well (open world exploration), and there are things they do badly (telling linear stories in open world games and their inability to understand how to use the Speech skill). But every developer has their pros and cons.
This comment thread was picked up by fans and shared on social media.
It’s not all bad from Bethesda’s perspective, which is something Avellone pointed out.
Fallout 4 (2015) was a best-selling title, and in 2018, the team produced Fallout 76, an MMORPG that changed the face of the franchise and gave players a live-service angle to appreciate the post-apocalyptic series from. In 2024, the first season of the Fallout television show, created by Bethesda, Kilter Films, and Amazon’s Prime Video, surfaced.
For the most part, the comments under Avellone’s were reflective of a somewhat united perspective. One user suggested it’s all down to Bethesda’s ‘design philosophy’ and stated it has been ‘happening for years.’
Another explained that the fans consuming the Fallout television series have ‘no idea what they’re missing’ because a lot of source content from the original games isn’t necessarily being covered by Bethesda and Prime.
Avellone was a pivotal part of the creation of Fallout: New Vegas, and much of what he wrote is now being explored in the second season of that television show, so something he penned directly could likely be retconned or reinterpreted.
Despite not having worked on Fallout in any capacity for almost fifteen years, Avellone has never given up his connections to the series, and rightly so.
Do you think Avellone is right about Bethesda and how the gaming titan treats Fallout? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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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.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
Long been confirmed true also Chris is the reason Fallout became popular same with other things guy is a legend. Honestly curious what his Elder Scrolls would have been and other games like New Vegas 2 and Alpha Protocol