Fallout 3 lead writer Emil Pagliarulo explains Bethesda was nervous when creating the game, but by Fallout 4 the team had chilled out.
It may not feel like it since it's made roughly the same number of entries as Interplay did in its seven years, but Bethesda has owned Fallout for almost two decades now (having gotten the license in 2004, before purchasing it outright in 2007). 2008's Fallout 3 immediately sent the franchise from a beloved cult hit PC game that had been dormant for a while straight into superstar status, with console gamers able to finally play a main entry in the series.
But despite how popular it was, Bethesda wasn't the most confident in creating its own take on the series right away, as Pagliarulo explains to GamesRadar+, "The big thing about Fallout 3 was it's this transitional game. It was the first Fallout we had done. So we wanted to make sure we were really honoring the legacy of the franchise and those earlier games." He adds, "We owned it, but owning a franchise and an IP is different than feeling like you own it creatively."
However, by the time Fallout 4, released, Bethesda had been the shepherd of the franchise for over a decade, releasing a game of the year winner in Fallout 3 and publishing the best Fallout game, New Vegas. Pagliarulo adds, "I think by the time Fallout 4 came around we felt more comfortable with like okay, 'we don't have to be so reverential now, it's not all nostalgia, we can create some new stuff.'"
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