A specific team within a studio could contribute something new alongside – or instead of – Bethesda Game Studios (BGS). This would also be an in-house effort.

Over its 23-year history, Obsidian Entertainment has created numerous excellent role-playing games. The studio celebrated its anniversary just this week. However, there is little doubt that, for most players, the company’s name is synonymous with Fallout: New Vegas. The game did not receive unanimous critical acclaim. It received an average Metacritic score of 84, narrowly missing the 85 that Bethesda stipulated in the contract for an extra payment. Nevertheless, it became a fan favorite thanks to its excellent narrative, the depth of the factions, the role-playing choices, the memorable companions, and the outstanding supporting characters. These were often favorably compared to those in BGS’s own games, such as Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.

So it’s no surprise that Obsidian fans have been clamoring for a New Vegas sequel – or at least a new Fallout game developed by Obsidian – ever since the company came under the Xbox umbrella. On behalf of the Irvine, California-based development team, founder and CEO Feargus Urquhart publicly stated that creating a new game in the series is entirely up to them. Rumors that Microsoft and Obsidian were in talks about this had been circulating prior to this statement, and they spread even faster after the Amazon Prime Video TV series became a massive hit and Microsoft tried to speed up the development of a new Fallout game. However, this did not sit well with BGS, which, until recently, showed no willingness to relinquish control of the prized franchise. About three months ago, Jeff Gerstmann claimed that a Fallout game under development at another Xbox studio had likely been canceled and that BGS would rather assemble a development team in-house than hand the work over to someone else.

However, the situation may soon change. Although Xbox CEO Phil Spencer respected BGS’s request, the new Xbox leadership, led by CEO Asha Sharma and Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball, has made it clear that they will cut funding for smaller projects. This will likely lead to layoffs and the closure of at least one studio in the near future. The goal is to allocate more investment to the franchises that truly drive the Xbox division. Currently, the division is reportedly fighting for its survival as Microsoft weighs whether to spin it off as a subsidiary or joint venture and/or sell it. In a public memo released Wednesday, Sharma wrote that they are the fortunate stewards of industry-defining franchises with enormous potential and player demand that have not received adequate funding to compete and succeed.

Then, just the other day, we reported that Microsoft is accelerating the development of new games based on its popular franchises. Sharma highlighted Fallout and The Elder Scrolls as two key areas. As it happens, there’s an Obsidian team whose expertise is a near-perfect fit for the post-apocalyptic genre. We’re talking about the team that developed The Outer Worlds. From the beginning, the series was presented as a slightly more whimsical, space-set version of Fallout. While the first two games were fun, we’ve known since late last year that there are no plans for a third installment due to low sales figures. The franchise is similar to Fallout in that it combines shooter and role-playing elements; the second game features both first- and third-person perspectives. Furthermore, the team is full of creative professionals who worked on Fallout. Leonard Boyarsky, the game director for both titles, worked on Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 with Tim Cain. Cain was the game director for the first The Outer Worlds and a consultant on the second. He returned to Obsidian full-time in December. Meanwhile, John Gonzalez, writer of Fallout: New Vegas, also returned to Obsidian last year. However, he has publicly stated that he will not be working on New Vegas 2.

It’s possible that Gonzalez, Cain, and the team have already started working on a new project or IP. However, the new Xbox executives are clearly determined to do everything they can to get the division back on its feet. Reports indicate that their top priority is a new Fallout game. However, BGS won’t start work on Fallout 5 until it finishes The Elder Scrolls VI, which could take another year or two. For Sharma, the quicker solution is to have Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds team switch to a new BGS game.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a sequel to New Vegas or a spin-off set elsewhere; fans would be excited either way. The question now is the engine: Obsidian has used the Unreal Engine for its latest projects, so returning to the Creation Engine could be problematic. At the same time, it’s not inconceivable that Microsoft would allow Obsidian to continue using the Unreal Engine instead of the Creation Engine. This would mean foregoing the standard mod support provided by the Creation Engine in favor of greater polish and more impressive visuals.

This is just speculation for now, but all signs point in that direction. Microsoft wants more Fallout games, and it already has a team with the necessary experience to create them.

Source: WCCFTech