Former Obsidian CCO Says Bethesda Doesn't Have 'Engineering Know-How to Remaster Fallout New Vegas' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 21 April 2026 / 3,298 Views
Obsidian Entertainment co-founder Chris Avellone and was the chief creative officer on Fallout: New Vegas claims Bethesda doesn't have the know how or the source code in order to remaster the game.
"Just really simply, I don’t think Bethesda has the engineering know-how to make a remaster of New Vegas at all," said Avellone in an interview with YouTube channel TKs-Mantis (via VideoGamesChronicle).
He hasn't played The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, but stated he heard "people enjoyed some of the visuals, but overall it seemed the reception was kind of negative."
TKs-Mantis mentioned the rumored Fallout 3 remaster and Bethesda could potentially use the same method to remaster Fallout: New Vegas.
"I mean, just pragmatically, it would make more sense to try out that process with Fallout 3 before going to New Vegas, just to see what all the problems and issues are as a result," said Avellone.
A remaster for New Vegas would be challenging for Bethesda as Obsidian studio head Feargus Urquhart did not give Bethesda the original source code after development was finished.
"The very last milestone for New Vegas was 'please deliver all the source code and the ability to make the build and we'll pay you, like, $10,000 for that milestone.' 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," he said.
"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, "It's not a strange decision if you feel – which would not be out of the realms 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. I could certainly see that, and I’m not saying that’s the case."
Avellone concluded, "They may have aspects of the code, but everyone that I talked to after that period of time said they had no idea how to reassemble it."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Microsoft owns Obsidian so they also own the source code, unless they literally destroyed it(which would be unbelievable). Microsoft also owns Bethesda—therefore Bethesda has access to the source code.
This whole story sounds whack though. Surely Obsidian were legally bound to hand over the source code and it wasn’t some optional extra for $10k(a ludicrously small mount of money)
Considering how Fallout NV was by far the most broken creation engine game at launch...
I'd say he's probably right but that doesn't look good for him either
They did a pretty good job with Oblivian Remaster.
As far as I know, the same studio that did the Oblivion remaster is also doing to Fallout 3 Remaster, and assuming that sells well, I would assume that Microsoft will greenlight the same studio to remaster/remake Morrowind and Fallout NV. I see no reason why they wouldn't be able to pull off NV, Oblivion Remaster ran just fine.
