Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds has drawn some obvious comparisons to Fallout 76 and the Fallout franchise in general, but Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart is surprised that some fans think they’re “sticking it to Bethesda.”
Talking to Game Informer during their month of coverage, Urquhart said “I have no ill will for Bethesda, I love playing Fallout games… We’re not fighting for the same dollars.”
He goes on to say that the team had absolutely no idea when they started development in 2015, that the announcement of The Outer Worlds would line up with negative reception on Fallout 76. Despite the reveal trailer saying “From the original creators of Fallout,” Obsidian meant nothing toward Bethesda, and had already prepared that marketing well in advance of Fallout 76.
Urquhart goes on to detail even more of his feelings on the matter, saying,
“This isn’t meant to be negative – it can probably be taken as negative. We really enjoyed making Fallout: New Vegas and people really enjoy Fallout: New Vegas. Bethesda is looking to take the Fallout brand in a different direction.
There’s nothing right or wrong about that. That’s their choice. They own it, they get to do what they want with it. But in our mind, there are people that enjoy where Fallout was.
That is what we wanted to do with The Outer Worlds, to give people that. And you know what? Maybe that’s a bad decision from the standpoint of the number of people that will buy it. I don’t know… People seem to really enjoy what Fallout: New Vegas was, so let’s give them an experience that’s as similar as we can to that.”
Game Informer also has an interview with co-directors Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky in their article, where they also get the pair’s thoughts on fans using Outer Worlds to criticize Bethesda.
The Outer Worlds is set to release sometime in 2019 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
