Bethesda likely won’t remaster New Vegas because it doesn’t know how to, Chris Avellone says

Chris Avellone, Obsidian's former chief creative officer and one of New Vegas' writers, said Bethesda likely cannot remaster New Vegas or build it from the ground up because the company lacks the "know-how" to do such a thing. As first caught by VGC, Avellone spoke on the TKs-Mantis YouTube channel, saying Bethesda lacks engineering capabilities to remake or remaster Fallout: New Vegas properly. "Just really simply, I don’t think Bethesda has the engineering know-how to make a remaster of New Vegas at all," he said. Furthermore, Avellone said that Bethesda never received the New Vegas source code, at least not in its entirety, because Obsidian chief executive Feargus Urquhart didn't deliver it. Apparently, the game's development was structured in "milestones," the meeting of which would net Obsidian monetary bonuses. The final milestone, Avellone claims, was to bring Bethesda the game's source code and ways to build it out, which would net Obsidian $10,000. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTYLWLAakaE "Now, what that milestone really meant was if all those assets are given to Bethesda, that means they can recreate the game at any time," Avellone explained. "So, for reasons unknown to me, but I have suspicions, Feargus decided not to cash out that milestone and did not deliver it," he added. He further said that he understood, to an extent, why Urquhart didn't deliver the code. "It’s not a strange decision if you feel, which would not be out of the realm of possibility, that he felt that the New Vegas experience cheated him out of X amount of money, in which case cutting off the revenue stream from that product for a time would be a possibility," Avellone said but also reaffirmed that he doesn't think that was the actual motivation. According to him, Bethsda may have "aspects" of the New Vegas source code, but his sources familiar with the game tell him the company doesn't know how to "reassemble" them. This would be a decisive blow to all the rumors of Bethesda working on a New Vegas remake or remaster, which we covered before. A remake, one that is entirely different from the original game, still is possible from what I understand, but it'd take Bethesda to build a whole new game that retains parts of the old one and shares little with it foundationally. Whether that's a profitable venue remains to be seen, but I feel like there are bigger and better new games to be made from scratch. Bethesda released the Oblivion remaster last year by essentially wrapping the original game, which still runs underneath, in Unreal Engine, bringing an entirely new graphical engine to the title while retaining much of the original's core. In fact, you can run the original Oblivion from the remaster's files with some effort, which goes to show how much of the initial game is preserved. New Vegas, it seems, would be a tough nut to crack in the same way, with no source code to speak of. The post Bethesda likely won’t remaster New Vegas because it doesn’t know how to, Chris Avellone says appeared first on Destructoid.

Apr 23, 2026 - 04:34

Bethesda likely won’t remaster New Vegas because it doesn’t know how to, Chris Avellone says

Chris Avellone, Obsidian's former chief creative officer and one of New Vegas' writers, said Bethesda likely cannot remaster New Vegas or build it from the ground up because the company lacks the "know-how" to do such a thing.

As first caught by VGC, Avellone spoke on the TKs-Mantis YouTube channel, saying Bethesda lacks engineering capabilities to remake or remaster Fallout: New Vegas properly. "Just really simply, I don’t think Bethesda has the engineering know-how to make a remaster of New Vegas at all," he said.

Furthermore, Avellone said that Bethesda never received the New Vegas source code, at least not in its entirety, because Obsidian chief executive Feargus Urquhart didn't deliver it. Apparently, the game's development was structured in "milestones," the meeting of which would net Obsidian monetary bonuses. The final milestone, Avellone claims, was to bring Bethesda the game's source code and ways to build it out, which would net Obsidian $10,000.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTYLWLAakaE "Now, what that milestone really meant was if all those assets are given to Bethesda, that means they can recreate the game at any time," Avellone explained. "So, for reasons unknown to me, but I have suspicions, Feargus decided not to cash out that milestone and did not deliver it," he added.

He further said that he understood, to an extent, why Urquhart didn't deliver the code.

"It’s not a strange decision if you feel, which would not be out of the realm of possibility, that he felt that the New Vegas experience cheated him out of X amount of money, in which case cutting off the revenue stream from that product for a time would be a possibility," Avellone said but also reaffirmed that he doesn't think that was the actual motivation.

According to him, Bethsda may have "aspects" of the New Vegas source code, but his sources familiar with the game tell him the company doesn't know how to "reassemble" them.

This would be a decisive blow to all the rumors of Bethesda working on a New Vegas remake or remaster, which we covered before. A remake, one that is entirely different from the original game, still is possible from what I understand, but it'd take Bethesda to build a whole new game that retains parts of the old one and shares little with it foundationally. Whether that's a profitable venue remains to be seen, but I feel like there are bigger and better new games to be made from scratch.

Bethesda released the Oblivion remaster last year by essentially wrapping the original game, which still runs underneath, in Unreal Engine, bringing an entirely new graphical engine to the title while retaining much of the original's core. In fact, you can run the original Oblivion from the remaster's files with some effort, which goes to show how much of the initial game is preserved.

New Vegas, it seems, would be a tough nut to crack in the same way, with no source code to speak of.

The post Bethesda likely won’t remaster New Vegas because it doesn’t know how to, Chris Avellone says appeared first on Destructoid.

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