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We could have got a Fallout: New Vegas-style Elder Scrolls game to pad the wait for The Elder Scrolls 6, but it reportedly "didn't gain much traction" with Bethesda.
That comes from Fallout: New Vegas writer and Obsidian alumni Chris Avellone, who has taken to Twitter to claim that one of the Elder Scrolls proposals they pitched was "intended to serve the same function" as New Vegas did between Fallout 3 and 4, which was to "provide more adventures in the setting" while fans waited for the next Bethesda release.
"I thought it couldn't hurt to try and push a similar system to what Treyarch/Activision had going with Call of Duty at the time (but hopefully less rushed)," he says. "Bethesda could do a core release, then we'd release a TES title (in [the] same world or a divergent timeline/era) before the next big [Bethesda] push.
"Probably less relevant now that Elder Scrolls Online is going, but at the time, it seemed to be something that could benefit both studios."
Avellone goes on to say that the pitch, "not surprisingly," didn't get much traction, adding that he never got the impression that Bethesda was happy with Fallout: New Vegas' reception – "good and bad."
As Avellone attests to in a follow-up tweet, part of Bethesda's unhappiness came down to the state the RPG launched in. While New Vegas remains beloved by fans today, the game released with various issues.
Avellone's comments come in reply to a story from outlet 80 Level, which points to older comments Avellone made about the pitch and others, including Fallout: New Vegas 2.
Avellone contributed to Fallout 2 as a writer before working on Fallout: New Vegas and other games, such as Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 during his time at Obsidian before going freelance.
In 2020, Avellone was accused of sexual misconduct amid an outpouring of people sharing their experiences of sexual abuse in the games industry. Avellone sued two women for libel over those claims – first in 2021, then separately in 2022 – before announcing a settlement of the second lawsuit earlier this year with a joint statement from those two women, which says, among other things, that "Avellone never sexually abused either of us." Specifics of the settlement are confidential but include a "seven-figure payment" to Avellone. The statement is available on Avellone's Medium blog.
Meanwhile, the Fallout: New Vegas director says he'll only answer one question about the RPG this season, and of course, it's about the card minigame Caravan.
