Celebration can be seen for fans of post-apocalyptic RPGs as Fallout: New Vegas, a landmark entry in the Fallout series of games, turned 15 years old on Oct. 19.
Fallout: New Vegas had the tough task of following up groundbreaking entry Fallout 3, which was released in 2008 to critical and financial success. Fallout 3 was the first entry of the series since the IP was bought by Bethesda Softworks, who turned the game from a tabletop RPG akin to Dungeons and Dragons and into a 3D action game.
Fallout: New Vegas sees the series take on the Mojave Desert, which was ravaged by nuclear devastation. Life in the Mojave is hard, with deadly creatures and gangs everywhere.
However, not all of civilization was lost.
The Las Vegas Strip somehow survived nuclear annihilation due to the efforts of multi-billionaire Mr. House, and over the course of the game, the player (nicknamed Courier 6) must take revenge on the man who shot them in the beginning of the game, recover the mysterious Platinum Chip, and decide the future of New Vegas.
The game was groundbreaking in the amount of freedom given to the player. Every single NPC (non player character) in the game was interactable, mainly through dialogue. The different skills in the game correlates to success in different dialogue options (i.e., if your bartering skill is high, you will get more money from selling items), and every single NPC in the game is killable, a difference from the other Fallout games.
A reason for these stark differences is likely due to the development of the game.
Bethesda is also the owner of the Elder Scrolls franchise, and New Vegas‘ development timeline (Jan. 2009 – Jul. 2010) overlapped with the development of another classic game: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which was released in Nov. 2011.
Because of this, Bethesda outsourced the production of the game to Obsidian Entertainment, a game development company most-known for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Obsidian has always taken extreme detail in their world-building and craftsmanship, hence the depth and layers to the messaging and writing of Fallout: New Vegas.
However, the production wasn’t entirely positive. Bethesda placed harsh deadlines on Obsidian due to the need to get the game out before Skyrim, and because of this, the game was very unpolished upon release, with players discovering thousands of glitches and bugs throughout the years.
The game also runs on the same software and graphics as Fallout 3, drawing some criticism due to its uncanny-ness.
Following the game’s release on Oct. 19, 2010, it achieved critical and financial success akin to Fallout 3.
New Vegas sold 11.6 million copies, making it the second-highest selling Fallout game at launch behind Fallout 3. The game also received a rating of 89 out of 100 from Metacritic, highest of the franchise. It was nominated for Game of the Year in 2011, but fell short to Mass Effect II.
New Vegas‘s impact was short lived after release. Bethesda released Skyrim in 2010 with a larger world and story, improved graphics, and much better PR. Most of the world forgot about New Vegas.
But luckily, the game was never forgotten. Hardcore fans of the game always stuck with it, and after the underwhelming reception of Fallout 4 in 2015 and even less so for Fallout 76 in 2017, the public had their mind turned back to the Mojave.
Fans of the game were treated in April of 2024 to a TV rendition of the series on Amazon Prime starring Ella Purcell, Walton Goggins, and Kyle MacLachlan. At the end of the first season, MacLachlan’s character is seen in a post-credit scene overlooking the skyline of the New Vegas strip, stirring theories and excitement for Season 2.
The trailer for Season 2 of Fallout was released in September 2025, and it shows the main characters of the game in New Vegas, proving that the Mojave Wasteland will be a major player in the story of the TV show.
While New Vegas was not appreciated as a masterpiece upon release, time has vastly improved the game’s reputation. It is now widely recognized as the best game in the illustrious Fallout catalogue.
Not bad for a game released as an afterthought a decade and a half ago.
