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(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

Quite a few committed Fallout fans weren’t happy with the way the Amazon television series appeared to negate—or at leastmess with—the presence of Fallout: New Vegas in the canon. But Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer isn’t one of them. In an interview withRock, Paper, Shotgun, Sawyer said he understands why there was some confusion and “could see why some people might be aggravated or annoyed,” but he doesn’t share that feeling because it’s not his thing anymore.
“This might sound weird, but whatever happens with it, I don’t care,” Sawyer said. “My attitude towards properties that I work on, and even characters that I create, is that I don’t own any of this stuff. It was never mine. And the thing that I made is what I made.”
Sawyer acknowledged that he might have opinions on changes or new additions to the world of Fallout, but said he doesn’t “get attached to things in that way” because he doesn’t think it’s healthy to be overly invested in something he can’t control.
“There are things that I might watch and say, ‘I don’t think I would have taken this that way’, and then there are other things that I think are really cool,” he said. “But it’s not my space, it was never my thing. I was a guest working in it. So I try to keep a level of distance between myself and the setting.”
Sawyer isn’t one of the original minds behind Fallout, but he does have a deep connection to it. Prior to serving as game director on New Vegas, he was project lead onVan Buren, the codename for the isometric RPG that was meant to be Fallout 3 before publisher Interplay went under, taking the game with it. Working on a Fallout game “was a dream of mine,” Sawyer said. “Losing that hurt.”
“There was a lot of effort put into making sure you can twist and turn through the different factions and resolve those things how you want,” Sawyer said.
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That excitement clearly remains: New Vegas, and every other Fallout game, have seen asignificant player surgeon Steam since the Fallout series launched. And while the debate over whether Bethesda was trying to quietly retcon New Vegas out of existence occasionally veered into silliness, it also reflected how seriously fans take this stuff: It’s maybe not entirely healthy, as Sawyer said, but it’s genuine.
The Fallout series on Amazon is a hit, and a second season has already beenconfirmed. More recently, the showrunners hinted, not too subtly, that the city of New Vegas willfeature prominently in season two—but perhaps not the New Vegas that gamers are expecting.
The full interview with Sawyer covers a range of topics beyond New Vegas, including burnout—something he recently said has replaced crunch as “the primary hazard of the game industry”—the Pillars of Eternity game, and the brilliant sleeper hit Pentiment. It’s a good read—check out the whole thing atRPS. And if you haven’t played New Vegas and are curious what you’re missing, be sure to have a look at ourguideto getting the most out of it today.
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