Interplay Productions co-founder Brian Fargo discusses the creation of the first Fallout. Initially, the game wasn't conceived as a standalone franchise—the role-playing game was supposed to be a direct sequel to Wasteland. The studio released the game in 1988 under the guidance of publisher Electronic Arts, but no agreement was reached on a sequel. To avoid legal issues with EA, Interplay Productions had to change various elements of the RPG, resulting in the Fallout many gamers know.
What many people don't know is that Fallout is actually a sequel to Wasteland. People don't know the full story. We moved from dungeons and trolls to the skill system in Wasteland, which then evolved into Fallout.
We actually worked on the game for a while, but after a few months we had to change the concept. For example, people forget that the Death Claws in Fallout were originally Shadow Claws. We did everything we could to prevent EA from suing us and minimize our borrowing.
Both Wasteland and Fallout are role-playing games set in a post-apocalyptic America. The first Wasteland game was released by Interplay Productions in 1988, with the second and third installments published by InXile Entertainment, led by Brian Fargo, in 2012 and 2020.
Fallout was released in 1997, with a sequel released a year later—both games were produced by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay. The last numbered game in the series was Fallout 4, released in 2015, and the multiplayer game Fallout 76 was released in 2018.
