Next-gen.biz has a report up in which Todd Howard speaks on Fallout 3 in early April (before the full purchase). He notes they're big fans, but more importantly that they're completely done with Oblivion and fully focusing on Fallout 3. Pay attention to the last quoted paragraph:<blockquote>He says it’s that fan mentality that lead the company to take the unusual step of buying in external IP, in the form of Fallout, back in the summer of 2004. The developer spent a reported $1.14 million (in guarantees) on the property, taking it from defunct publisher Interplay.
Characteristically, Bethesda isn’t saying much about the game itself but Howard is happy to talk about the company’s approach to the problem of bringing a classic franchise into a development environment where original IP has generally held sway.
“We had known that Fallout had been left behind (when Interplay went bust). The developers were saying ‘we’re really interested in doing something with this IP’ so the business people came back six months later and handed it over saying ‘have fun’. We liked the previous games, but we really loved the world. It’s so unique we were really excited about the idea of working on it.”
(...)
Interplay had already produced a lot of work on Fallout 3, but Bethesda has decided to go it alone. The firm has made it known that it will take the IP in its own direction. Having won major plaudits and awards for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, it can afford to exercise some creative risks.
He says, “When something is as successful as Oblivion, it affords you a certain amount of freedom. You can take some more chances. We’ve always tried to do big crazy things but you can do it even more.”
(...)
While Fallout 3 has been in pre-production, Bethesda has been finishing up its commitments to Oblivion, with the release of The Shivering Isles expansion pack. He says, “Right now that’s the only expansion we have planned. We do all the stuff in-house so it’s all about bandwidth. We have pretty much everybody on Fallout 3 right now. It started off kind of small and then we add people to it and now the expansion’s done, all those people have come on to Fallout 3. That’s the thing we want to focus on right now, so I think I’d be surprised if we do another expansion.”
(...)
Bethesda isn’t just about development. The company publishes and produces external work. So why not farm out some expansions – or some core projects to trusted development partners?
He says, “The expansion is successful. Financially, the obvious question to ask is, ‘why don’t we do more of this?’ But we have always viewed ourselves, over the last 20 years, as a boutique. We have some crazy ideas and we get it in there and we get a lot of them right and we get some of them wrong. That process has worked for us. We’re really getting into the stuff we’re doing with Elder Scrolls and Fallout and I guess we’re shy about having someone else start making content. It’s very personal to me and the guys I work with so it needs to be nurtured and well fed.”</blockquote>So there's the answer to the people vaguely hoping that they'll pull a BioWare one day and let Obsidian handle development of a Fallout sequel: not a chance.
Link: Facing Fallout on Next-Gen.biz
Thanks Talamos for pointing out the CvG coverage.
Characteristically, Bethesda isn’t saying much about the game itself but Howard is happy to talk about the company’s approach to the problem of bringing a classic franchise into a development environment where original IP has generally held sway.
“We had known that Fallout had been left behind (when Interplay went bust). The developers were saying ‘we’re really interested in doing something with this IP’ so the business people came back six months later and handed it over saying ‘have fun’. We liked the previous games, but we really loved the world. It’s so unique we were really excited about the idea of working on it.”
(...)
Interplay had already produced a lot of work on Fallout 3, but Bethesda has decided to go it alone. The firm has made it known that it will take the IP in its own direction. Having won major plaudits and awards for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, it can afford to exercise some creative risks.
He says, “When something is as successful as Oblivion, it affords you a certain amount of freedom. You can take some more chances. We’ve always tried to do big crazy things but you can do it even more.”
(...)
While Fallout 3 has been in pre-production, Bethesda has been finishing up its commitments to Oblivion, with the release of The Shivering Isles expansion pack. He says, “Right now that’s the only expansion we have planned. We do all the stuff in-house so it’s all about bandwidth. We have pretty much everybody on Fallout 3 right now. It started off kind of small and then we add people to it and now the expansion’s done, all those people have come on to Fallout 3. That’s the thing we want to focus on right now, so I think I’d be surprised if we do another expansion.”
(...)
Bethesda isn’t just about development. The company publishes and produces external work. So why not farm out some expansions – or some core projects to trusted development partners?
He says, “The expansion is successful. Financially, the obvious question to ask is, ‘why don’t we do more of this?’ But we have always viewed ourselves, over the last 20 years, as a boutique. We have some crazy ideas and we get it in there and we get a lot of them right and we get some of them wrong. That process has worked for us. We’re really getting into the stuff we’re doing with Elder Scrolls and Fallout and I guess we’re shy about having someone else start making content. It’s very personal to me and the guys I work with so it needs to be nurtured and well fed.”</blockquote>So there's the answer to the people vaguely hoping that they'll pull a BioWare one day and let Obsidian handle development of a Fallout sequel: not a chance.
Link: Facing Fallout on Next-Gen.biz
Thanks Talamos for pointing out the CvG coverage.
