Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! There was a time when Fallout was seen as more of a cute, playtime project than the multi-bajillion-dollar IP Bethesda ultimately helped turn it into, says the RPG's co-creator Tim Cain. Speaking to Game Informer for its massive new Fallout oral history, Cain recalls the early days of Fallout at Interplay, the franchise's first home before Bethesda purchased it in 2004. But it wasn't a particularly warm home to the original Fallout devs, it seems, as Cain remembers feeling like "we were a B-tier side project at Interplay." "They got the D&D license about six months to a year after we started, and they're like, 'Okay, that's the A-tier. Those are the money teams,'" Cain says, "And we're off in the corner." After Morrowind and Oblivion, hardcore RPG fans didn't want Bethesda on Fallout 3 Explore the history of the Fallout games with some of the devs who helped bring the iconic RPG franchise to life Fallout creators wanted to buy the IP, but Bethesda sniped them with a $6 million bid: "They would have laughed" Fallout designer Leonard Boyarsky remembers it similarly, agreeing that "it was very much like, here's our team off in the corner, and there's the rest of Interplay" – but he's grateful for it. "I was aware enough to know this is weird in a really good way," he muses. "This is like we're making an indie game, but we have a steady job, and we have steady paychecks, and we're not trying to find a publisher for it, because once they saw what we were doing – and they appreciated what we were doing – they're just like, 'Well, we have these much more important games! The Dungeons and Dragons games are licensed to print money. Just don't bother anybody. Just go over there and do your thing and it'll be great.'" And, well, it was great. Todd Howard knows there's "anxiety" about Fallout 5, admits "we do like to wait" but reassures fans "we never stopped developing Fallout."