Bethesda was surprised by the level of hatred from Fallout fans - the studio began to be smashed even before the release of Fallout 3
Now Fallout is associated with Bethesda for many, but initially the franchise was created by Interplay Productions. Fans of hardcore RPGs were unhappy with the new owner of the rights to the franchise.
Bethesda began to be criticized even before the release of Fallout 3. Angela Browder, who was the assistant art director at the time, shared her memories in a conversation with Edge — the studio did not expect such a reaction to the deal:
In the Fallout community, there was a group of fans who believed that the [Bethesda] team, famous for fantasy games with elves, should not touch this series. We were amazed at how much hatred was poured on us. They were furious that we acquired this license.
However, lead designer Emil Pagliarulo believes that the status of the Fallout license among fans of the RPG genre made its purchase by Bethesda an "obvious decision."
Initially, the studio simply licensed the franchise, but when the original developers from Interplay encountered financial difficulties, they began to sell off their assets — as a result, Bethesda was able to acquire Fallout.
