12 Things You Didn't Know About Fallout: New Vegas

3. Bethesda Considered It A Failure

fallout new vegas
Obsidian

It kind of feels like Bethesda doesn't want to acknowledge New Vegas these days. When discussing the franchise, the company only ever references the games it built, and it didn't seem to take any inspiration from Obsidian's spin-off while making either Fallout 4 or 76.

Worse still, the deal in place was that the team only received an upfront payment to make the game, with no royalties scheme in place and a bonus only promised if New Vegas ended up hitting 85 on Metacritic. Its eventual score was 84, and they didn't get a penny from Bethesda.

Of course, the terms of the contract were clear and the company owed the team nothing, but it has become a point of contention for developers who worked on the title, as New Vegas was a huge commercial success, and the lack of royalties or bonus eventually led to Obsidian laying off tens of their staff.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.