The Fallout 3 fans know today was never meant to exist. Instead, original Fallout developer Black Isle Studios intended to create their own Fallout 3 in the series’ classic isometric RPG style. However, significant financial issues caused the game’s cancellation.
For the first time in decades, Fallout creator Tim Cain discussed the cancelled Fallout 3 in a YouTube video. Also known under the moniker Van Buren, the scrapped RPG was abandoned by an executive who wanted a much shorter development time.
Cain revealed that an Interplay executive informed him that Fallout 3 was going to be cancelled. However, Cain was given a chance to save the game after playing an early prototype of the cancelled game.
“I’m convinced in 18 months you could have a really good game shipped,” Cain told the Interplay executive, but that timeline was far too long for their liking.
“He said, ‘Huh, could it be done any faster?’ And I was like, 'Oh, shoot, I’ve said too long.' I said, ‘Well, even if you did a death march crunch, I don’t think you could do it faster than 12, and then you’d be shipping something that was unbalanced and buggy, and the team would be destroyed. So I don’t recommend that,’” Cain told fans.
The Fallout creator explained that Interplay wasn’t going to accept a development period longer than six months. Due to Interplay’s financial troubles, the game publisher didn’t have the funds to give Fallout 3 more than six months of development.
“As we walked out, he basically explained that any answer over six months was going to result in him having to cancel it, meaning the answer I just gave got the game cancelled,” Cain said. “But he was going to cancel it anyway. He thought it couldn’t be done in six months, and I just confirmed that to him.”
Interplay eventually sold the Fallout IP to Bethesda Softworks in 2007, who went on to create their own Fallout 3. Obsidian Entertainment, a studio made up of ex-Black Isle developers, returned to the franchise to create Fallout: New Vegas in 2010.
At the time of writing, Interplay still exists, although it is mostly known for re-releasing old games on modern hardware. The historic game publisher hasn’t released a AAA game since 2004.
In the years since, Fallout has become a major success. Alongside the huge sales of Fallout 4 and the success of Fallout 76, the Fallout TV show is one of the best video game adaptations we've ever seen.