Veteran Elder Scrolls loremaster Kurt Kuhlmann suggests that Bethesda’s fantasy RPG series never saw a Fallout: New Vegas-like spin-off because a “very protective” Todd Howard didn’t want to create another situation where people might question whether his studio is best placed to handle the series.
In a new interview with FRVR, Kuhlmann – who also served as Skyrim’s co-lead designer, a quest designer on Oblivion, and more before leaving Bethesda in 2023 – implies that New Vegas’s success may have unintentionally created the perception of competition between Bethesda and Obsidian, namely when it comes to which studio makes the better Fallout games.
“The whole New Vegas thing did create this, at least the perception of this, ‘who makes a better Fallout game?’ ‘Oh, they should just give it to Obsidian,'” Kuhlmann explains. “There are the Obsidian, New Vegas people that think obviously New Vegas is way better, Obsidian is way better at making those games, and why don’t they just get Fallout altogether.”
Furthermore, Kuhlmann adds: “I don’t know that Todd wanted to create that situation again for The Elder Scrolls. Todd, from my time there, he is very protective of it.”
Even though Fallout fans might pit Obsidian and Bethesda against each other depending on their favorite Fallout games, prior evidence suggests there’s no actual beef between the two studios. In an interview late last year, Howard went as far to say Obsidian was “the only choice” to create a new Fallout game after 3, and before that, the Bethesda lead had expressed his “huge respect to the folks at Obsidian” for their list of 2025 releases.
Now, you’d certainly hope there’s no vicious rivalry between the two, since not only are they working on a new Fallout game together, but Bethesda has actually taken over management of Obsidian following more reshuffling and restructuring at Xbox. Bethesda president Jill Braff has reportedly stated that the New Vegas studio will keep its “creative identity,” though concerns were still raised by Baldur’s Gate 3 publishing director Michael Douse, who said he “can’t imagine” that the move “feels great” for the devs.