A Fallout veteran says the success of the Fallout TV show was especially gratifying given the struggles of the Borderlands movie.
In an interview on the Boss Rush network podcast, long-time Fallout producer Jeff Gardiner discusses how "RPGs live and die on story", explaining how a strong narrative can outrank frustrating mechanics. Gardiner, who spent more than a decade on Fallout across Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76, says that that philosophy rang true across the games, but that he also "saw that in the Fallout TV show being super successful."
"That wasn't even because of the characters," he goes on, "because they didn't use canon characters, [...] but that setting and tone was enough connective tissue and glue for [director] Jonah Nolan and the showrunners to make an amazing series out of. And that speaks very well, because there was another movie released [recently], based on a more action-oriented game, which is a fantastic game - but man, that movie's being pilloried."
Given the timing of this interview, which dropped on YouTube last week, it's pretty clear that Gardiner is talking about the Borderlands movie. The movie had an opening weekend of just $8.8 million against a $110 million budget. Poor reviews meant that the movie remains the second worst-received film of the year, and the film is reportedly heading to streaming after just three weeks.
Gardiner doesn't comment on the quality of the film himself but says that its failure means he's even more aware of the success of the Fallout TV show, which is now in the running for 17 Emmy Awards: "I was really honored that Fallout had done so well. I was nervous, because Fallout's a weird IP. If you don't know what's going on in that IP, it is super weird."
Gardiner also touches on the video game curse and the fact that until quite recently, "you've seen [game adaptations] done badly so many times, with people picking the wrong things to focus on, or not taking it seriously enough, or taking it too seriously. There's this real fine line where you're taking the content way too seriously and then it's not fun, not engaging. Or you're tongue-in-cheek the whole time, winking at the camera, and you think they didn't respect it."
The good news is that Gearbox has finally lifted the lid on Borderlands 4.
