Todd Howard checks his calendar, sighs quietly, and tells us all again that he doesn't have a grudge against Obsidian or Fallout: New Vegas

If there's one thing we know about Todd Howard, it's that he doesn't hate Obsidian. We know this because he keeps telling us. He keeps telling us because Fallout fans won't stop speculating that secretly, deep down in his heart of hearts, Todd Howard hates Obsidian.

How often has he denied hating Obsidian? A quick and non-comprehensive list:

• 2024: Todd Howard says Fallout: New Vegas "is a very, very important game to us."
• 2025: Todd Howard expresses "huge respect to the folks at Obsidian."
• 2026: Todd Howard says that when it came time for someone else to make a Fallout game, Obsidian was "the only choice."
• And in case you think this is an entirely new phenomenon, 2018: Todd Howard says "the Obsidian guys did a fabulous job" on Fallout: New Vegas.

Now, with a new Obsidian-led Fallout officially underway, he's back to say it again.

"I appreciate some of the fan chatter, but behind the scenes, there's a huge amount of mutual respect [between Bethesda and Obsidian]," Howard told IGN. "We're always kind of wondering if we could find a way to work together in the right way. And when those things come up, I … look at the franchise all up, as you see in the note, everything that's happening with Fallout [and] say, is there a way or a window or a pocket where we could do something together that really, really made sense? And so we're super excited about the opportunity, working together."

"The note" Howard mentioned is the sprawling infodump Bethesda put out today that lays out its plans for the future, which despite the recent, sweeping layoffs at Xbox includes a lot of Fallout. The Obsidian partnership was made official, as were long-awaited remasters of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 5 is in pre-production.

It is amusing how often Howard finds himself delivering some variation of this message—initially because some Fallout fans speculated that he's envious of the much-loved New Vegas, and later over even wilder speculation that he was using the Fallout TV show on Amazon to retcon New Vegas out of existence. Howard actually brought Obsidian developers onto the set of Fallout season 2 so they could see the show's take on New Vegas for themselves, but did that settle the matter once and for all? Apparently not.

I like to think, though, that Howard is in on the joke too, as he seemed to suggest with his remark about appreciating "fan chatter." It's a fine line to walk, because there is a tendency sometimes, among some people, to take things more seriously than they should. But it can be fun to play up an obvious exaggeration or misconception, and the more ridiculous, the better. I'm sure at some point in the past it was a genuine concern for Howard, but at this point I really do hope he's just rolling with it for kicks.

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