Obsidian co-founder says Bethesda rejected multiple Elder Scrolls spin-off proposals

Bethesda reportedly turned down multiple proposals from Obsidian to develop more Fallout games as well as The Elder Scrolls spin-offs.

That’s according to Obsidian co-founder and former chief creative officer Chris Avellone, who revisited the subject on Monday after an old X (formerly Twitter) thread resurfaced last week (via 80 Level).

Obsidian’s sole Fallout game was 2010’s New Vegas, although the studio once hoped to develop more series entries, as well as to make a game in Bethesda’s fantasy RPG series. But according to Avellone, various pitches from the studio he left in 2015 were rejected.

“This is true,” he said. “One of the Elder Scrolls proposals (which I pitched) was intended to serve the same function as FNV did between F3 and F4, to provide more adventures in the setting during the years before the next Bethesda release.”

The last mainline Fallout game was 2015’s Fallout 4, and the most recent, non-mobile series entry was 2018’s online multiplayer title Fallout 76.

Despite the long wait between series entries, Bethesda’s Todd Howard said in 2021 that he would be hesitant to outsource Fallout 5.

“I don’t see… Look, Fallout’s really part of our DNA here,” he told IGN, seemingly playing down the chances of another studio taking the reins, before not ruling it out completely.

“We’ve worked with other people from time to time, I can’t say what’s going to happen,” he continued. “You know, we have a one-pager on Fallout 5, what we want to do.”

Howard reiterated last year that Fallout 5 remained behind Elder Scrolls 6 in the studio’s production queue.

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Bethesda’s former publishing boss Pete Hines said in August that Elder Scrolls 6 was “in early development”, but that fans shouldn’t expect more news about the game to be revealed for “a few years”.

Bethesda recently delayed Fallout 4’s PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC update from this year to 2024.