Obsidian Is Making a New Fallout Game, and It’s About Time

What the Bloomberg Report Actually Says

Every once in a while a gaming rumor comes along that I actually want to believe. This week Bloomberg reported that Microsoft is shifting Obsidian Entertainment onto a new Fallout game, and the details as reported by Kotaku are almost too good. Josh Sawyer, the design director who ran Fallout: New Vegas, is reportedly leading the team. Bethesda is still involved in some capacity. And the topic shot up Google Trends within hours, because of course it did.

The usual caveats apply. This is a report, not an announcement. Bloomberg’s own sources say Xbox’s strategy is in flux and things could change. But sources this specific, with a named director and a named studio, usually mean the train has already left the station.

Why New Vegas Still Matters 16 Years Later

Fallout: New Vegas came out in 2010, built by Obsidian in a famously short development window, and it’s still the game people bring up first in any Fallout conversation. Not Fallout 3. Not Fallout 4. New Vegas. The faction system where every choice locked doors behind you, the writing that treated you like an adult, the fact that you could talk your way through the entire final battle. Nobody has topped it in this franchise, including Bethesda.

I put well over a hundred hours into it on PS3, and that version ran like a slideshow half the time. I did not care. When a game’s ideas are that good, you forgive the seams. My household is deep enough into this universe that the Fallout cookbook sits on our kitchen shelf, and yes, somebody has actually made the recipes.

Handing a new Fallout to the studio that made New Vegas, with the same director in charge, is the single most fan-brained decision Microsoft has made since it bought all these studios. It took them long enough to make it.

The Avowed Sequel Paid the Price

Here’s the part that stings. To free up Obsidian, Xbox reportedly cancelled the planned Avowed sequel, which was apparently on track to be revealed within the next year. The reporting ties the cancellation to new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s strategy of pointing studios at the biggest franchises.

I get the logic. Fallout is a monster brand with a hit TV show behind it, and Avowed was a solid B+ that never set the world on fire. But solid B+ games with original settings are exactly what the industry keeps strangling, and it’s the same instinct behind every publisher chasing remakes of proven hits, something I wrote about with the Black Flag remake. New ideas fund nothing. Established ideas fund everything. That math works until the day it doesn’t.

So pour one out for Eora. Then be honest with yourself: if you had to pick between Avowed 2 and Obsidian doing Fallout, you’d pick Fallout too. I know I would.

The PlayStation Angle

Longtime readers know I’m a PlayStation guy, so here’s why I’m not just watching from the sidelines. Microsoft’s exclusivity walls have been coming down for two years. Xbox games ship on PS5 now as a matter of routine, and Fallout has historically been a multiplatform franchise anyway. Whatever this project becomes, the odds it stays locked to one console are close to zero.

Which means the real winner here is everybody. A proper RPG studio gets the wasteland back. Josh Sawyer gets the sequel-in-spirit fans have begged for since 2010. And I get to spend the next three years arguing about which faction I’m siding with this time. My gaming setup is already dialed in. Take your time, Obsidian. Just not another sixteen years.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Obsidian really making a new Fallout game?

According to a Bloomberg report from July 8, 2026, yes. Microsoft is shifting Obsidian to a new Fallout project with Bethesda involved. It has not been officially announced, and sources say plans could still change.

Is this Fallout: New Vegas 2?

Nobody has called it that. But with New Vegas director Josh Sawyer reportedly leading the project at the same studio, it’s the closest thing to a spiritual successor fans have ever gotten.

What happened to the Avowed sequel?

Xbox reportedly cancelled it to move Obsidian onto Fallout. The sequel was supposedly on track to be revealed within the next year.

Is this Fallout 5?

No. Fallout 5 remains Bethesda Game Studios’ project for after The Elder Scrolls VI. The Obsidian game is a separate Fallout title.

Will the new Obsidian Fallout game come to PS5?

Nothing is confirmed, but Microsoft has been releasing its games on PlayStation regularly, and Fallout has always been a multiplatform series. A PS5 release would surprise no one.