It would take a lot to get OG Fallout lead Tim Cain to return to the series: 'The very first question out of my mouth is 'What's new about it?''

GamesRPGFalloutIt would take a lot to get OG Fallout lead Tim Cain to return to the series: ‘The very first question out of my mouth is ‘What’s new about it?‘‘When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Bethesda)

Fallout Power Armor helmet looking to right with darkened red city in background

With Fallout back on everyone’s minds after the success of the new show, the original game’s lead developer Tim Cain has been weighing in ondifferent aspects of the seriesover on his YouTube channel. While Fallout clearly still means a lot to him, Caindidn’t seem keen to return to the serieswhen responding to his viewers’ frequent queries.

“There’s a lot of different questions being asked there,” Cain said. “Would I want to remake Fallout as a 3D game? Are you asking if I would like to make a Fallout offshoot like Fallout: New Vegas is… Do I want to make Fallout 5?” Whatever he thinks of those respective possibilities, Cain was clear that he’s not worried about authority, creative freedom, or even pay⁠—within reason, of course. Cain explained that his primary motivator, especially now that he’s semi-retired, is his own interest in a project.

Would I Work On Fallout Again? - YouTubeWatch On

Would I Work On Fallout Again? - YouTube

“The ‘TLDW’ is: Every RPG I’ve ever made offered me something new and different that got me interested in making it,” Cain said. “It was the game itself that offered me something interesting that made me go ‘Ooh, I want to do that, I’ve never done that.'”

While there are throughlines between his projects, it’s certainly an eclectic spread: Fallout, The Temple of Elemental Evil, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and The Outer Worlds, to name a few. Notably, the only direct sequel that Cain has worked on that left pre-production, Fallout 2, was not a project he’d wanted to pursue, and heleft development before it was completed.

“If someone came to me and said, ‘You want to make a Fallout game?’ My answer is: ‘Well, what’s new?'” Cain said of the hypothetical. “I didn’t even want to make Fallout 2, why would I want to make a new Fallout?”

While money is certainly an object for Cain, he explained that the novelty or excitement of a project is the thing that gets him through the door, Fallout or otherwise: “The very first question out of my mouth is ‘What’s new about it?'”

But while it might be hard to impress one of the guys who invented Fallout with a new ideaforFallout, it does sound like Cain’s contracting on a few new game projects that excite him⁠—in the past he’s mentioned overcoming that aversion to sequels to continue working on The Outer Worlds 2.

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