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Fallout Shelter Was Entirely Fallout 4 Director Todd Howard's Idea
Fallout Shelter originally launched on mobile devices last year and just recently made its way to Steam. At the time of its original release, it seemed somewhat out of character for Bethesda, a company that specializes in console and PC games, to suddenly launch a standalone mobile tie-in. But Fallout Shelter went on to be wildly popular and exceed Bethesda's expectations.
A little more than a year after its release, we were able to sit down with Bethesda VP of marketing Pete Hines at Quakecon 2016 and learn a little more about the hit game and how it came to be. He revealed that Fallout Shelter was actually the brainchild of Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard, giving what would otherwise be a risky move more credence.
"We've always kicked around ideas about doing mobile stuff here and there but [Shelter] was one that kind of stuck with us," Hines told us. "It was Todd's idea, so it tends to give it a little bit more weight when he says, 'I have this idea for this thing.'"
Hines continued: "[Howard] plays a lot of stuff on mobile... That was start to finish... his idea. He [said], 'It's going to be like this and it's going to look like this. It's going to be a side view thing.' That was his thing."
Of course, Bethesda Game Studios was also hard at work on Fallout 4 when Fallout Shelter was announced, so it seems pretty wild that Todd Howard would have time to lead design on both Fallout 4 and Shelter. When asked about how Howard pulled this off, Hines replied, "I don't know. It's Todd Howard... I mean, he had very specific ideas on how he wanted it to monetize or how he wanted it to look and feel. 'I want to do this, but I don't want to do this.' That was the game that we did."
Pete Hines talked about a lot more with us in our interview, and you can read about Bethesda's opinion on the PS4 Neo and Xbox Scorpio consoles, why Prey 2 was canceled, and why Quake Champions isn't coming to consoles. And be sure to keep an eye on GameSpot this weekend for more news coming from Quakecon 2016.
More...
A little more than a year after its release, we were able to sit down with Bethesda VP of marketing Pete Hines at Quakecon 2016 and learn a little more about the hit game and how it came to be. He revealed that Fallout Shelter was actually the brainchild of Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard, giving what would otherwise be a risky move more credence.
"We've always kicked around ideas about doing mobile stuff here and there but [Shelter] was one that kind of stuck with us," Hines told us. "It was Todd's idea, so it tends to give it a little bit more weight when he says, 'I have this idea for this thing.'"
Hines continued: "[Howard] plays a lot of stuff on mobile... That was start to finish... his idea. He [said], 'It's going to be like this and it's going to look like this. It's going to be a side view thing.' That was his thing."
Of course, Bethesda Game Studios was also hard at work on Fallout 4 when Fallout Shelter was announced, so it seems pretty wild that Todd Howard would have time to lead design on both Fallout 4 and Shelter. When asked about how Howard pulled this off, Hines replied, "I don't know. It's Todd Howard... I mean, he had very specific ideas on how he wanted it to monetize or how he wanted it to look and feel. 'I want to do this, but I don't want to do this.' That was the game that we did."
Pete Hines talked about a lot more with us in our interview, and you can read about Bethesda's opinion on the PS4 Neo and Xbox Scorpio consoles, why Prey 2 was canceled, and why Quake Champions isn't coming to consoles. And be sure to keep an eye on GameSpot this weekend for more news coming from Quakecon 2016.
More...