Fallout was a "B-tier side project" compared to the D&D "money teams" at Interplay, says series co-creator Tim Cain: "We're off in the corner"

News
By published

Not so B-tier anymore!

Fallout 2 promotional art
(Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)

There was a time when Fallout was seen as more of a cute, playtime project than the multi-bajillion-dollar IP Bethesda ultimately helped turn it into, says the RPG's co-creator Tim Cain.

Speaking to Game Informer for its massive new Fallout oral history, Cain recalls the early days of Fallout at Interplay, the franchise's first home before Bethesda purchased it in 2004. But it wasn't a particularly warm home to the original Fallout devs, it seems, as Cain remembers feeling like "we were a B-tier side project at Interplay."

Fallout designer Leonard Boyarsky remembers it similarly, agreeing that "it was very much like, here's our team off in the corner, and there's the rest of Interplay" – but he's grateful for it.

"I was aware enough to know this is weird in a really good way," he muses. "This is like we're making an indie game, but we have a steady job, and we have steady paychecks, and we're not trying to find a publisher for it, because once they saw what we were doing – and they appreciated what we were doing – they're just like, 'Well, we have these much more important games! The Dungeons and Dragons games are licensed to print money. Just don't bother anybody. Just go over there and do your thing and it'll be great.'"

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.