Fallout TV Series Benefited from Not Launching with a New Game, Says Phil Spencer

Nov 13, 2024 at 10:00am EST
Fallout TV Spencer

Fallout TV series creator Jonathan Nolan and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer appeared earlier this week at the Paley International Council Summit during a panel titled Source Code: How Hollywood and Videogames Are Leveling Up Together.

At some point during the conversation (transcribed by Inverse), Phil Spencer said the outstandingly successful Fallout TV show might have actually benefited from not having another game launch in the same franchise at a similar time. The executive pointed out that the strategy is much more in-depth and long-term than merely using the adaptation to incentivize fans to buy a new game.

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We didn't have a new game lined up for the launch. I actually think that gave us some creative liberty that we wouldn't have had if we tried to coordinate the production of two very different creative processes to land at the same time.

The play is much more long term than trying to drive some gift buying.

Fortunately, the days of tie-ins, when games were often rushed out of the door simply to be released alongside big-budget movies, are behind us. This has led not only to greater creative freedom but also to much better overall quality, as the creative process cannot be rushed. Plus, Fallout games did get a massive boost in sales anyway when the TV show dropped on Amazon Prime Video, even if they weren't newly released.

During the panel, Jonathan Nolan briefly discussed the show's second season, saying it will rely even more on flashbacks than season one.

For the most part, in games, it’s a little harder grammatically to flashback, right? Some games can do it very well. There are a couple of memorable flashbacks in Call of Duty and other franchises. But for the most part, you kind of lock the user into that first-person point of view across both space and time. In a show, you can flashback and you can explore that world beforehand. It’s one of the things I love the most about season one and we will be doing more of that in season two.

Fallout TV season 2 will start filming soon in California.

About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.

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