What Obsidian Is Saying About Fallout: New Vegas 2 Now That Xbox Owns Bethesda

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Microsoft now owns Bethesda and Obsidian Entertainment, and that leaves Fallout fans with one big question: could this mean we’ll get a true sequel to Fallout: New Vegas? Instead of dodging the question outright or directing attention toward its own franchises, Obsidian has leapt into the fray of today’s Bethesda acquisition news by giving a smirk and a shrug to the thought of making New Vegas 2.

Yes, hot on the heels of Microsoft announcing that it has acquired Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax and all of its constituent studios, Obsidian—which was added to Xbox Game Studios in 2018—has acknowledged the New Vegas-shaped elephant in the room. Quote-tweeting someone who asked if Fallout: New Vegas 2 “is a legit possibility now,” Obsidian responded with a shrugging emoticon. Obsidian also welcomed Bethesda to the Xbox “family” in another tweet.

Obsidian’s New Vegas is a favorite amongst USgamer’s staff and, both here and in communities across the web, has been held up as a high-point for the Fallout series in the decade since its release. With Obsidian moving on to focus on things like Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds (itself a sort of Fallout and New Vegas successor) while Bethesda has largely side-stepped New Vegas’ contributions to Fallout, the idea of an Obsidian-made sequel has seemed like a longshot. Now, you can at least picture how one would take shape.

Then again, this practically unprecedented deal throws up all kinds of interesting overlaps between Xbox-owned studios. Microsoft also owns inXile, which revived the Wasteland series. Fallout, bought by Bethesda in the mid-2000s, is the spiritual successor to Wasteland. Obsidian certainly could make a New Vegas sequel thanks to the Microsoft acquisition, but it’s already working on Grounded and Avowed, the latter of which looks like its Pillars of Eternity-universe challenger to Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls RPGs. Obsidian could also be more interested in expanding upon the universe of The Outer Worlds than in revisiting the Mojave.

Still, this cheeky tweet shrugging at the possibility of a sequel represents the most hope that fans of New Vegas—one of USgamer’s Top 25 RPGs of all-time—could have for a follow-up in years. Microsoft buying up Bethesda’s studios and properties has huge implications for the future of Xbox, Game Pass, and all of Bethesda’s workers, so we’d do well not to forget that consolidation at this scale isn’t necessarily a good thing… but if you’re listening to Marty Robbins and Kay Kyser on loop this morning, we can’t blame you.