Chris Avellone, author of many famous RPGs including the Fallout series (previously managed by Bethesda), has had his say on some aspects regarding the title in question and the relationships with Obsidian and Bethesda in a recent post on his personal blog.
In particular, Avellone explained his relationship with Bethesda’s Fallouts and something about the current situation of Obsidian, a team he left before the acquisition by Microsoft, and the aforementioned software house that took control of “his” series.
Among the most interesting confessions is the fact that Avellone does not have it with Bethesda for the new management of Fallout: “If nothing else, they kept it alive,” explained the original author, contrary to the alleged “hatred” that according to some would feel for the company that now controls the series.
“They also added a layer of open world exploration that was needed, compared to everything we were able to do in Interplay,” he said.
In addition, “Bethesda’s marketing department has had much more strength than Interplay, helping to push Fallout into the mainstream. There’s a reason why you can find Fallout T-shirts from Target, and that alone is a huge achievement.”
He also reported that he has played Fallout 3 and generally has a good opinion for the game, considering that the positives far outweigh the negatives and in general the game offers a number of solutions to the design and gameplay problems that may emerge as well. For all the evaluations of Avellone, which go very specifically also of the individual quests and game systems, we refer you to the interesting post by the videogame author on his personal blog.
Much less interested seemed towards Fallout 4, which gave up after 3 hours of play due to a “level design / meeting problem” and which he never resumed, while he did not even try Fallout 76, which is evidently not in the writer’s ropes.
Also interesting is the mention of Obsidian, his ex-team with whom he seems to have a somewhat contrasting relationship, but probably with still solid contacts. Speaking about Fallout: New Vegas and the possibility of a sequel, Avellone reported that, as far as he knows, there are about 20 remaining developers from the original team that created the game in question, in Obsidian, out of a total of about 70, with many leaving or being fired.
“Before this causes alarm, however,” Avellone said of a possible continuation of Fallout: New Vegas 2, “I must say that many of these 20 remaining are key characters for the development of New Vegas and Obsidian also has Leonard Boyarsky and Tim Cain on board, although both are engaged in The Outer Worlds 2. Leonard and Tim are the original creators of Fallout,” explained the author.