OG Fallout creators wanted the IP when it was up for sale, but Bethesda's $6 million bid was a blowout: "It wouldn't have mattered if they heard our offer or not, because they would have laughed"

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OG Fallout creators wanted the IP when it was up for sale, but Bethesda's $6 million bid was a blowout: "It wouldn't have mattered if they heard our offer or not, because they would have laughed" News By Ali Jones published 9 January 2026

"We never even got a chance to make an offer"

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The history of the Fallout games is a complicated one, but it was Bethesda's almost $6 million offer that ensured it would be the steward of the franchise, no matter what it's original creators might have hoped for.

The Fallout IP was originally owned, published, and created by Interplay, whose internal Black Isle Studios made Fallout 2. Interplay licensed the franchise to Bethesda, but hit dire financial straits in the mid-2000s and was forced to sell assets in order to pay its staff. According to Brian Fargo, co-founder of Interplay, "the only asset they really had to sell was Fallout."

Speaking to Game Informer, Fargo says that a lawsuit attached to those financial issues "made [Interplay] sell all the Fallout rights to Bethesda," but there might have been another way. Fallout's art director, Leonard Boyarsky, who had left Interplay to found Arcanum and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines studio Troika Games alongside Tim Cain and Jason Anderson said that he tried to make a bid for the rights before they got to Bethesda.

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"We got some possible investment interest," Boyarsky says, "but we never even got a chance to make an offer." Bethesda reportedly paid $5.75 million to secure the rights. Previously, Cain had made clear that the three-person team of Boyarsky, Anderson, and himself had been "outbid" for the rights to make Fallout 3, but Boyarsky suggests it was a little more brutal than that. "It wouldn't have mattered if they heard our offer or not," he says, "because they would have laughed."

The rest, as they say, is history. Bethesda's held firmly onto the Fallout franchise since then, handing it off to Obsidian for New Vegas and Amazon for Fallout season 2, with Fallout 5 somewhere way off in the distance after The Elder Scrolls 6. As for Troika, two out of three of them are working as close to Fallout as you can get without being at Bethesda these days, with Tim Cain rejoining Obsidian to work on a secret project teased after The Outer Worlds 2, which Boyarsky helped build as creative director.

Bethesda design director wants a Fallout 5 you could play for up to 600 hours because "that's the kind of games we make."

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Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. TOPICS Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Game Studios CATEGORIES Xbox Series X PS5 PC Gaming Platforms Xbox PlayStation Ali JonesSocial Links NavigationManaging Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

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Logout Read more Explore the history of the Fallout games with some of the devs who helped bring the iconic RPG franchise to life    Bethesda was scared of making Fallout 3, but by Fallout 4 it had chilled out: "we don't have to be so reverential now"    Obsidian knows that "everyone on the internet" keeps asking for Fallout: New Vegas 2, but its devs are currently happy working on their own IP, and "Xbox has been pretty supportive" too    Todd Howard says Obsidian was "the only choice" for Fallout: New Vegas    Fallout co-creator Tim Cain explains why he's not making more new IPs: "Other people have made way more money"    Bethesda design director wants a Fallout 5 you could play for 600 hours because "that's the kind of games we make"    Latest in Fallout Fallout Season 2 hype has doubled or even tripled the Steam player count of every game in the series    Fallout 3's VATS system almost didn't make it into the RPG, and Bethesda worried no one would even want to use it    Fallout co-creator Tim Cain explains why he's not making more new IPs: "Other people have made way more money"    Todd Howard says Obsidian was "the only choice" for Fallout: New Vegas    Fallout 3's VATS system helped compensate for Bethesda's lack of shooting chops    Bethesda's Todd Howard says "we are doing other things with Fallout that we haven’t announced"    Latest in News Nearly a year later, Obsidian's fantasy RPG Avowed is coming to PS5    Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista to fight off the Yakuza in this trailer for their over-the-top new action-comedy    Peak is $8 because the devs wanted you to see a $5 price tag and, hey, "eight bucks is still five bucks"    "If we're publishing the game, 'no f***ing AI assets'": Strategy and city builder powerhouse Hooded Horse bans AI art    Arc Raiders cheating and "out of map" exploits acknowledged by Embark: "We are implementing significant changes"    Tom Cruise got behind the camera to help shoot a lightsaber duel for Star Wars Starfighter    GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS

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