Fallout New Vegas lead says Bethesda doesn’t “fully understand” the series

Obsidian co-founder Chris Avellone, who worked on Fallout 2 and New Vegas, believes that Bethesda doesn’t “fully understand” the series it now owns.

Fallout is one of the biggest franchises in gaming, with Bethesda’s Fallout 3 taking the series to new heights. However, plenty of developers have had their turn with the post-apocalyptic RPG, with Interplay Entertainment and Black Isle working on the original Fallout and its sequel, back when it was still using the triemetric perspective that Bethesda dropped in favour of third and first-person.

There’s been a lot of debate among fans about which is the ‘true’ version of Fallout, as although the newer titles made it drastically more popular, many fans prefer the darker tone of the earlier games.

Chris Avellone has worked on the series in both eras, serving as a designer on Fallout 2 before co-founding Obsidian, which made Fallout New Vegas, and he believes that Bethesda hasn’t fully grasped what the series is about.

Chris Avellone thinks Bethesda doesn’t understand Fallout

Spurred on by Fallout Season 2 on Amazon Prime, which has angered some fans due to its changes to the lore, he was asked on X about speculation that Bethesda actually “hate” the franchise.

“I don’t think Bethesda hates Fallout, they just don’t fully understand its roots and arguably, don’t care,” he replied. “They own the franchise, and they just want to do their spin on Fallout and make that the norm.”

Avellone, who left Obsidian in 2015, went on to describe games like Fallout 3, 4, and 76 as “colorful, shallow theme parks,” although he pointed to DLCs like Far Harbor, Point Lookout, and The Pitt as “interesting” exceptions.

In the same thread, he clarified that he doesn’t have anything against Bethesda and its take on Fallout, explaining that there are positives and negatives to its design.

“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.”