Todd Howard says Fallout: New Vegas "is a very, very important game to us" and that it's "hard to canonize" for the TV show

Todd Howard talks Fallout: New Vegas, revealing that it's "a very, very important game to us,"  but it's "hard to canonize" for the Fallout TV series.

In an interview with Kinda Funny Games, a viewer asked if, since Bethesda and New Vegas developer Obsidian are both under the Microsoft umbrella, there are more collaboration opportunities. "First I'll say, [Obsidian] did an amazing job with New Vegas," Howard responds. "New Vegas is a very, very important game to us, and our fans, we think they did an incredible job."

The Bethesda boss then turns his attention to New Vegas' role in the Fallout TV show: "If anything, the show is leaning into the events [of New Vegas]." Fans of the Fallout title will already know the complexities of adapting New Vegas to screen, which Howard also touches upon in the interview.

"Season two is going to be featuring some of New Vegas and we're careful about maintaining the key events of that game and the great content in it," he explains. "It is obviously difficult to deal with… when you're going back to an area where a game had multiple endings, we have some answers there but it's hard."

"Everybody realizes it's hard to canonize or say 'this is exactly how that game ended' and so whenever we can I like to avoid it like don't refute anything that happened, be careful when you're specific about what happened - we want that game, and [what] the players did, to be their reality and true," he adds.

Following this, Howard explains the process behind determining what's canon and not with its games. "The most truthful thing is what people saw on the screen," the developer explains. "And then things that are sort of written officially along with the games is kind of second truth, and then other things that are written or done outside of that [...] whether they're spin-off things or somebody answering on the internet, those things are kind of third place."

"When you go to something new, you look back over that and you say 'okay, how much do I want to lean in on this truth down here, versus this other one' or if you have a really really good idea, or you want to move things forward in some way, how do you acknowledge that while still moving things forward?" Howard explains. "And obviously, it can be tricky when some of those things refute." 

If you're now wondering: Is the Fallout TV show canon? Here’s what Bethesda’s Todd Howard and the showrunners have to say.