Fallout: New Vegas 2 was but a sparkle in the eyes of top leadership at Obsidian before plans for a sequel fell apart, reveals the studio's former senior designer Chris Avellone.
In a recent talk with TKs-Mantis, Avellone is asked about Fallout 2 developer Black Isle Studios' canceled Fallout 3, which was codenamed Van Buren. Specifically, TKs-Mantis asks whether his theory that "New Vegas acts as if the events of Van Buren happen" is correct. It turns out TKs-Mantis is "partly right" and that "there are certain things that were gonna take place in Van Buren that do happen during the time of New Vegas," Avellone says.
Other than what Avellone calls "the caravan wars," which refers to a conflict between the NCR and a "merchant mafia" that would've been a major plot point in Van Buren - and which we saw "a little bit" of in New Vegas - "not a ton of" Van Buren's story influenced New Vegas. That said, Avellone confirms he did "try and set up Van Buren for New Vegas," and that's where we get to the thrust of this story.
"That's why all those nukes go off, cause I'm like, 'well, I need to destabilize some regions. Like, not wipe out factions, but I need to shake up both the Brotherhood, I need to shake up the NCR, I need to have them even more at each other's throats in California,'" he says. "And so that was the reason for some of the pre-cursor decisions for some of the DLC stuff and some of the stuff in core New Vegas ... When we still thought we'd be able to do a New Vegas 2, or whatever the title would be, but that quickly evaporated."
Y'all, Chris Avellone just said the words New Vegas 2 in sequential order. Of course, this means very little for a potential New Vegas sequel, and in fact Avellone himself says that "will not happen in the next six years at least, if ever," but just hearing those words from the original Fallout: New Vegas designer is sure to ring alarm bells for a bunch of people.
Avellone is probably right to temper expectations for a potential New Vegas 2. Although there was a credible report from 2022 that "very early" talks were happening at Microsoft, we haven't heard anything since. Naturally, there's always hopium for the huffing, but as recently as November of last year, Obsidian's VP of operations acknowledged the demand for a New Vegas sequel but stressed the studio's focus on its own original IP. That doesn't mean Xbox couldn't tap Bethesda Game Studios to make the game, but those guys are a little tied up with a little something called The Elder Scrolls 6.
