Bloomberg, in a recent report, has said that Obsidian, the studio behind landmark titles like Fallout: New Vegas, but also behind recent titles as acclaimed as Avowed or The Outer Worlds, could be behind the next installment in the Fallout franchise. A change in Bethesda’s policies after the latest restructuring at Microsoft following Asha Sharma’s arrival as Xbox’s new CEO.
A Fallout in many senses
According to sources of journalist Jason Schreier, as part of the restructuring of 3,200 employees who will lose their jobs at Xbox over the next 12 months, Obsidian will lose a quarter of its workforce. Which means between 60 and 70 employees. Which will, in turn, make development of this new project harder.
Although Obsidian will keep its own projects like Grounded 2 and the planned post-launch content for The Outer Worlds 2, a sequel to Avowed has been canceled and they will devote themselves to making a new installment for Fallout. An absolute anomaly because, for 16 years now, Todd Howard, director of Starfield, hasn’t allowed anyone to make games in the Fallout or The Elder Scrolls franchises without his direct involvement. Precisely since Obsidian released, in 2010 and after being given barely 18 months of development, the acclaimed and much-loved Fallout: New Vegas.
In fact, according to Bloomberg, the person in charge of making this new Fallout will be the director of New Vegas: Josh Sawyer. Who, they say, had been working on a game “structurally and thematically similar to Fallout,” but which formally was not going to be part of the franchise**. But considering that Fallout hasn’t received a new installment since Fallout 76, in 2018, and given the tremendous success of the series on Prime Video, it seems logical that Xbox would want to capitalize on the franchise’s fame. Even if Todd Howard doesn’t like it.
