Chris Avellone Explains Why Bethesda Can’t Remaster Fallout: New Vegas

Chris Avellone, former chief creative officer of Obsidian Entertainment and a key writer for Fallout: New Vegas, has stated that Bethesda likely cannot remaster the game or rebuild it from scratch because the company lacks the necessary engineering expertise. Avellone made these remarks during a TKs-Mantis YouTube interview, first reported by VGC.

"Just really simply, I don’t think Bethesda has the engineering know-how to make a remaster of New Vegas at all," Avellone said.

Avellone also revealed that Bethesda never received the complete source code for New Vegas. According to him, the game’s development was structured around milestone-based payments, where meeting certain goals would earn Obsidian financial bonuses. The final milestone involved delivering the game’s source code and build instructions to Bethesda, which would have paid Obsidian an additional $10,000.

"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," Avellone explained. "So, for reasons unknown to me, but I have suspicions, Feargus decided not to cash out that milestone and did not deliver it."

Avellone acknowledged that Obsidian’s former CEO, Feargus Urquhart, may have had valid reasons for withholding the source code. He speculated that Urquhart might have felt financially shortchanged by Bethesda, potentially cutting off revenue streams as a response. However, Avellone clarified that he does not believe this was the actual motivation behind the decision.

While Bethesda may possess some components of the New Vegas source code, Avellone’s sources indicate that the company lacks the ability to reassemble these pieces into a functional remake. This casts doubt on persistent rumors about a potential New Vegas remaster or remake.

Avellone noted that a full remake—one that diverges significantly from the original—remains theoretically possible. However, such a project would require Bethesda to develop an entirely new game while retaining only select elements of the original. Whether this approach would be commercially viable is uncertain, especially given the existence of other high-priority projects.

Bethesda’s recent Oblivion remaster, released last year, serves as a contrasting example. The remaster wrapped the original game’s files in Unreal Engine, introducing a modern graphical overhaul while preserving the core experience. Notably, players can still extract and run the original Oblivion files from the remaster’s data, demonstrating how much of the original game was retained. New Vegas, however, presents a far greater challenge due to the absence of its source code.