Fallout: New Vegas 2 Is Coming, But It Doesn't Sound Like Obsidian Wants To Make It
Fallout: New Vegas is such a special game. When it launched back in October 2010 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, it felt like the fully-fledged RPG experience that Bethesda’s series revival failed to deliver, even if it remains a fantastic experience in its own right.
Obsidian Entertainment’s take on a post-apocalyptic Sin City was smarter, funnier, deeper in its gameplay mechanics, and more creative in its storytelling. The dystopian grey and green of the Capital Wasteland was replaced by an inviting amber that drew you into a vast world of super mutants and debauchery. To this day, it’s one of the best entries in Fallout’s history and a game I’ve replayed so many times I’ve lost count. But after all this time, we’ve never gotten a sequel.
That is, until now. Bloomberg recently reported, in the wake of mass layoffs at Xbox, that it has pivoted Obsidian to begin work on a new Fallout game helmed by Josh Sawyer, a man many will recognise as the director of New Vegas. Sawyer’s last release as creative director was the delightfully unique Pentiment, and prior to this week’s mass layoffs, reportedly including a quarter of the studio, he was working on an RPG similar to Fallout in themes and structure, but not part of the franchise.
Series veteran Chris Avellone added further context to this development by claiming that, while working at Obsidian, he had pitched a new Fallout game, but was summarily shot down by Bethesda and then encouraged to pursue an original project. This stinks of an unusual power struggle amidst internal studios at Xbox to work on beloved properties, and likely explains why we’ve been waiting over a decade for New Vegas 2 or something along those lines to materialise.
It’s a messy situation, and while the idea of a new Fallout game developed by Obsidian has me filled with bittersweet excitement, I wish it came under better circumstances. Thousands of people lost their jobs at Xbox this week as entire studios with several decades of expertise have been gutted in a short-sighted pursuit to cut costs, and it’s only after the dust has finally cleared that Xbox will realise the huge mistakes it has made.
Does Obsidian Even Want To Make Fallout: New Vegas 2?
I struggle to think of a triple-A developer in the modern era more prolific than Obsidian. In an age where many studios struggle to release more than two games a decade, it has put out a vast assortment of excellent games that couldn’t be more different from one another. Avowed is an inviting first-person RPG set within the Pillars of Eternity universe with excellent combat and lovable companion characters, and a desire to push the gameplay formula pioneered by Bethesda many decades ago to bold new places.
Then you have Grounded and its sequel, a duo of excellent survival games where you play as a squad of kids trying to survive in a garden filled with giant bugs. It’s a take on the vast survival genre that puts a truly unique spin on everything it does, and to this day maintains quite a large and active community.
I’ve already mentioned Pentiment, but to this day, it’s a tremendously unique game with an unforgettable art style and razor-sharp writing. There is nothing else out there quite like it. Finishing off its modern slate of titles is The Outer Worlds 2, a conventional yet impressive sequel that builds on everything the first game did so well.
Every single game listed above is driven by imagination and originality, two things that, since being acquired by Xbox several years ago, Obsidian has managed to cling onto. But as it pivots to a new Fallout title out of obligation, I fear that age is over. Layoffs will impact all currently in-development projects, such as Avowed 2, which has now been shelved, as most employees are shifted onto an RPG within a major franchise that is guaranteed to succeed.
It’s unclear whether this new game will be New Vegas 2 or set within an entirely new part of the Fallout universe, but with Xbox’s renewed focus on existing franchises with guaranteed chances of success, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sawyer and company return to the locale. It’s more relevant than ever thanks to the TV show, and likely has plenty more stories to offer if you set the game within a specific time period and justify the player character’s existence.
On the other hand, how wonderful would it be to see an official Fallout game set outside the United States in somewhere like London, Paris, or even Japan? A twist on the series that is not confined by our nostalgic connection to the past, but a genuine desire to make something new and exciting. Obsidian is already being put onto this project after losing so much talent and having to cancel existing projects. I imagine significant work has gone into it, so precisely how jazzed are they going to be about returning to Fallout?
That excitement might have been profound when Sawyer was pitching a new Fallout title to Bethesda a number of years ago, but since then, that passion has likely shifted to a library of original projects that are deliberately distinct from what Fallout has to offer. Obsidian decided to make a catalog of bold, original, and award-winning titles, and its punishment is to now shift onto creating a game in a franchise it was once forbidden from touching.
Xbox is learning a lot of hard lessons from its avalanche of high-profile studio acquisitions as it lays off thousands of employees and parts ways with beloved developers, but I don’t believe the permanent solution is to pivot entirely to huge franchises like Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Halo, Gears, Doom, and nothing else. For video games to shine as an art form, there must be room for both predictable yet excellent properties and brave, original efforts to shine. Unfortunately, it only cares about the bottom line right now, and if that means thrusting a new Fallout game into production, then so be it.
I just hope the finished product is made with love, passion, and a true creative vision rather than being a corporately mandated release that must achieve a certain Metacritic score or sell tens of millions of copies to be deemed successful. Fallout: New Vegas is too iconic for its legacy, and those of its creators, to be sullied in such a way.
- Released
- October 19, 2010
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Obsidian Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Bethesda
- Engine
- Gamebryo
- Franchise
- Fallout
- Genre(s)
- RPG
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