At a recent Bethesda press event, I asked Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart about the studio's decision to take on the next Fallout versus pursuing an original IP. Head past the break for Urquhart's thoughtful response.
*[Editor's note: The Aliens-based game was ultimately canceled.]
What was the deciding factor for you and the rest of the Obsidian staff in electing to create Fallout: New Vegas versus an original IP for your next game?
This is different than going off and making the Iron Man 2 game. I mean this isn't a movie game. It's taking a license that, first off, we already love -- and a lot of us actually were involved in making the original Fallout games. So this is sort of just something fun to do.
I mean literally, when I was at Interplay, a lot of the reasons why I didn't leave when I probably should have left before was so I could get to make another Fallout. And so I kind of look at New Vegas as a different kind of license.
Now, from kind of more of a business perspective ... I know it's a big surprise to everybody that the economy hasn't been what it has been. And in some ways, as a developer, it's easier to get licensed products signed up, just because it's sort of like -- usually, when a publisher is coming to you to talk to you about a game, you know, if they are saying, "Hey, we got this license we want you to use" -- you're already like 10 steps into the process.
And with a ready to use game engine from Fallout 3, especially.
Yeah, exactly. But I think kind of the true game developer side of me is like, "This is just a fun game to make." So if we get into this highbrow, like, "What's a license and what's original, and why aren't we being an original studio?" and all that good stuff, I'm like, well, I mean, so much of what's in Fallout is original.
You know, New Vegas is a story we came up. It's all our own characters. It's a bunch of new weapons. It's a whole new part of the world. I mean, it has "Fallout" on it, and we are very faithful to the canon and what's come before, but we can do whatever we want. So, I mean, at that point, it's almost like it's an original.
