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Fallout 4 could've potentially been set in New York instead of Boston, but The Big Apple proved too popular as a video game setting at the time.
Fallout 4 lead designer and writer Emil Pagliarulo explains in an interview with the PC Gamer magazine, "We wanted to do something grand and American: that's New York for you." However, the New York plan was quickly abandoned by Bethesda due to the popularity of the region.
"At that time, other games were being set in New York, one of the Crysis games just came out, and that was set in New York, then there was another game," Pagliarulo explains. He doesn't mention the other game in question, but it's likely he could be talking about the Prototype games or Resistance 3, given they both released around the same time as Crysis 2 and 3 – which were both set in New York.
Pagliarulo recalls the team deciding, "You know what? Maybe New York's not the right call." So, that's how we ended up with Fallout 4 being set in the Commonwealth. However, he and Fallout 4 lead artist Istvan Pely have different memories of how Boston was chosen.
Pagliarulo says, "I didn't want to push for Boston, even though I thought it would be a great location," adding that Pely and director Todd Howard came to him with the idea. Meanwhile, Pely says, "I remember when it came time to do Fallout 4, Emil's like 'can we do it in Boston? Can we do my hometown.'" He adds, "I don't know, maybe he got a kick out of that, blowing up his hometown."
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