Obsidian had a Fallout project before current one – Bethesda killed it

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Obsidian Entertainment is reportedly early in development on another Fallout game , but it's apparently not the first time the studio has tried to jump back into the radioactive wasteland since making Fallout: New Vegas. According to Obsidian co-founder and former developer Chris Avellone, the studio had been working on the idea some time ago until Bethesda got involved.

Amidst all the turmoil in Xbox's suite of developers, Obsidian has seemingly also been affected by layoffs and project restructurings. And as Xbox eyes up its biggest franchises, Bloomberg reports that the studio behind arguably the best Fallout game is hoping to repeat its magic trick.

Part of that report claimed Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer had been directing another game that was similar to Fallout in many ways, but wasn't actually named after or related to the franchise. Asked about that project online, Avellone says he heard from sources at the studio that Sawyer's old project was actually "intended to be a Fallout game" before series steward Bethesda "put the kibosh on that a while ago, so it had to change its direction/tone from Fallout to something 'similar' to Fallout." No reason was given for Bethesda's alleged disapproval of the project.

The RPG veteran also alleges that an Avowed sequel, which was reportedly scrapped to make way for a Fallout game, is "still being worked on (for now) in the hopes of being 're-pitched'" later down the line in some form. Grounded 2 and The Outer Worlds 2 DLC are seemingly still on track.

Needless to say, I wouldn't take this as bulletproof confirmation of anything since Avellone hasn't worked at the studio for over a decade and his sources may be a little rusty.

Bethesda boss says the company must focus on its "strongest franchises" as Xbox layoffs reportedly hit The Elder Scrolls and Fallout makers hard.