Todd Howard confirms the Fallout show did not retcon non-Bethesda Fallout video games: ‘All the pieces that occurred within the earlier video games, together with New Vegas, occurred’
Todd Howard confirms the Fallout show did not retcon non-Bethesda Fallout video games: ‘All the pieces that occurred within the earlier video games, together with New Vegas, occurred’
On: April 18, 2024
The response to the Fallout show has been nearly universally constructive, and even these of us who’ve a couple of complaints about it nonetheless actually loved it. However Prime TV’s Fallout adaptation has raised a couple of questions amongst followers and Fallout lore fanatics, notably with regards to one vital historic location: Shady Sands.
Spoilers for the Fallout show observe.
Within the Fallout video games, Shady Sands is likely one of the largest cities in California and the primary capital of the New California Republic, however once we see it within the Fallout show it is only a large crater. Town and its inhabitants of 30,000 residents is solely gone, which is kind of a blow to the NCR—and Fallout followers.
A bit extra troubling is that the nuking of Shady Sands occurred roughly 20 years sooner than the current timeline of the show, and a blackboard in a Vault classroom exhibits the 12 months 2277 below the phrases “The Fall of Shady Sands”—right subsequent to a drawing of a mushroom cloud. If that is the nuke’s date, that predates the occasions of Fallout: New Vegas, which led some followers to presume the show’s creators had retconned New Vegas from Fallout historical past.
This principle has already been debunked a few occasions, first, at nice size, by me, after which by somebody in a way more convincing capability: the lead designer and author of Fallout 3 and 4. Emil Pagliarulo mentioned “in fact” New Vegas continues to be canon, and that Bethesda has “by no means urged in any other case.”
That actually oughta be sufficient, but when you’ll want to hear it from an excellent increased energy, your want is granted. In an interview with IGN, Todd Howard himself not solely confirmed New Vegas’ place in Fallout historical past is safe however that that large bomb did not even fall in 2277.
“So [show creators] Graham [Wagner] and Geneva [Robertson-Dworet] wished to explode Shady Sands. The primary time they convey that up, you are like, ‘what do you need to do?’ I had really an emotional response to it given the historical past of that location within the franchise from Fallout 1,” Howard instructed IGN.
“And simply so folks hear it, we’re cautious in regards to the timeline. There is perhaps a bit of little bit of confusion at some locations, however all the pieces that occurred within the earlier video games, together with New Vegas, occurred,” Howard mentioned.
Howard went on to make clear even additional, saying “the bomb falls simply after the occasions of New Vegas. That is when Shady Sands blows.” He additionally confirmed that “The Fall of Shady Sands” could possibly be referring to an occasion apart from a nuke being dropped on it.
Whew. Fallout: New Vegas is protected, and if Fallout season 2 occurs, we’ll really be visiting it—together with some deathclaws who aside from one cranium had been totally absent from season 1. You’ll be able to learn all the interview with Todd Howard and Jonathan Nolan on IGN.
