Sometimes the best thing that can happen to a franchise is for someone outside of it to take the reins. Or if not take the reins, at least provide their own perspective on it. When it feels exhausted, or those in charge of it don’t seem to know what to do with it, that new or different perspective can help put it back in its place. Something that should never be underestimated.
This is something that Obsidian should know well. Fallout 3 was a tremendously successful game, but it didn’t exactly enamor the classic fans of the franchise. Something that Fallout: New Vegas did, a game that Obsidian Entertainment was in charge of. However, they never did something similar again. And thanks to Chris Avellone, an employee of Obsidian, we have known why.
The proposal made by Obsidian, as commented by Avellone himself on his social media, was to create games that filled the gaps between the main installments. Just like Fallout: New Vegas served to bridge the gap between Fallout 3 and 4, the idea was for them to make games for The Elder Scrolls so that there wouldn’t be such a long wait time between their titles, like Call of Duty does. This was necessary since almost six years passed between The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Unfortunately, the proposal didn’t get very far. Bethesda flatly refused, cutting their wings claiming the reception that Fallout: New Vegas had. A commercially less successful game, but one that has ended up being recognized over time as the best modern Fallout in terms of criticism and public.
Although since then at Obsidian they have been able to work on many projects, some of them very unique and close to what would be a Fallout: New Vegas 2, such as The Outer Worlds, they have never gone back in this direction. A real shame because, between The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls VI fifteen years will pass at least. And that’s only if everything goes well in an industry where things almost never go well.
