Bethesda Once Turned Down Obsidian’s Pitch for The Elder Scrolls Spinoffs, Co-Founder Says

There’s a legion of Fallout fans out there who’ll tell you that Obsidian Entertainment did a much better job of capturing the series’ essence with Fallout: New Vegas than Bethesda Game Studios has done with all of its mainline instalments so far. As it turns out, if Obsidian had had its way, the studio might have made similar spinoffs for the Elder Scrolls franchise as well.

The same was revealed recently by Obsidian Entertainment co-founder Chris Avellone, who ended his twelve-year stint at the studio in 2015, having worked on the likes of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Fallout: New Vegas.

Taking to Twitter, Avellone recently revealed that Obsidian at one point proposed several Elder Scrolls spinoffs to Bethesda, and that one of the proposed titles would have been a smaller spinoff between mainline instalments, in similar vein to Fallout: New Vegas.

“One of the Elder Scrolls proposals (which I pitched) was intended to serve the same function as Fallout: New Vegas did between Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, to provide more adventures in the setting during the years before the next Bethesda release,” he said.

Avellone further explained that the idea behind the pitch was to have a multi-studio development cycle for The Elder Scrolls that would have seen Obsidian releasing smaller-scale titles between flagship releases by Bethesda Game Studios itself. Ultimately, Bethesda turned down the pitch, with Avellone suggesting that the studio’s disappointment at the reception for Fallout: New Vegas had been a factor.

“I thought it couldn’t hurt to try and push a similar system to what Treyarch/Activision had going with Call of Duty at the time (but hopefully less rushed),” Avellone said. “Bethesda could do a core release, then we’d release an Elder Scrolls title (in same world or a divergent timeline/era) before the next big Bethesda push.”

Of course, Bethesda and Obsidian are both now owned by Microsoft, so it should be interesting to see if the latter gets another chance to work on the former’s franchises. Obsidian has mentioned a few times in recent memory that it would love to develop another Fallout game.

Currently, Bethesda Game Studios still has over 250 people working on post-launch support for Starfield, while The Elder Scrolls 6 also exited pre-production earlier this year. Meanwhile, Obsidian Entertainment is working on Avowed, which is due out in 2024, and also has The Outer Worlds 2 in the works.

I thought it couldn't hurt to try and push a similar system to what Treyarch/Activision had going with Call of Duty at the time (but hopefully less rushed).

Bethesda could do a core release, then we'd release a TES title (in same world or a divergent timeline/era) before the…

— Chris Avellone (@ChrisAvellone) December 18, 2023

Not surprisingly, it didn't gain much traction – I never got the impression Beths. was happy with FNV's reception (good and bad).

— Chris Avellone (@ChrisAvellone) December 18, 2023