Earlier today, Fallout 3 developer Bethesda Softworks announced "Fallout: New Vegas," a new title in the Fallout series of post-nuclear RPGs.

Not a true sequel to Fallout 3, New Vegas is instead a spin-off RPG in the same style under development at Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian was founded by former members of Black Isle, the original developers of the Fallout franchise, making the project a unique partnership between Fallout veterans and the current series stewards.

Following the press event in London, I caught up with Bethesda marketing VP Pete Hines to talk a bit about the project and other Fallout-related items.

Shack: When did Bethesda start thinking about a Fallout spin-off?

Pete Hines: It's something that we've discussed at night for a while, and just had talked about doing. And we said, well, if we're going to do this, we... Read more

At a press event in the United Kingdom, Fallout 3 developer Bethesda today announced a new externally-developed entry in the post-apocalyptic role-playing series.

Titled Fallout New Vegas, it's being developed by Obsidian Entertainment (Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II) with PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 versions planed for a simultaneous launch in 2010.

New Vegas will be an RPG in the style of Fallout 3, Bethesda noted, but the company did not confirm if it uses the same engine. The studio also stressed that it approached Obsidian to make a new Fallout entry, not the other way around.

"It is not a sequel to Fallout 3," said Bethesda marketing VP Pete Hines. "It was just a great opportunity we thought to work with some guys who very clearly know Fallout--Feargus [Urquhart] and those guys were there in the early days of Fallout... Read more