Former Bethesda artist Jonah Lobe reveals that the studio received death threats during the development of Fallout 3. Lobe says that these abusive messages came from fans of the classic games, and were in response to the Elder Scrolls studio buying the rights to the series.

As reported by Kotaku, Lobe revealed this in a recent YouTube video that goes over his time at Bethesda. This included dealing with the Fallout playerbase, which Lobe says contained "more than its average share of less-than-pleasant fans". He says that the company received "a lot of death threats" during this time, so much so that Bethesda had to hire a security guard.

This was backed up by fellow former Bethesda dev Jeff Gardiner, who added that one of these death threats came in through a fax machine.

The death threats were real. I came into the office early one morning, the fax machine was buzzing. I went to look what it was (who the f faxes a game studio?) and it was a scrawled note that said "We will slit your throats.". Kinda wish I had saved it. https://t.co/fwGU638IuM

— Jeff Gardiner 🎮 (@jg93) April 20, 2024

Lobe expanded on the death threats when speaking with Kotaku. "I remember there was a lot of toxicity in places like No Mutants Allowed," says Lobe, referencing a fan site that's been around since the original games.

The first few Fallout games, including the first two mainline entries, were handled by Interplay. Following years of financial struggles, Interplay shut down the internal development studio that worked on Fallout and put the IP up for sale. Bethesda bought Fallout for $5.75 million (as reported by Game Developer at the time) and then launched Fallout 3 in 2008 - ten years after Fallout 2.

Bethesda made huge changes to the series, scrapping the turn-based RPG mechanics and adapting the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system for more action-orientated gameplay. To this day there is a divide in the fanbase concerning Bethesda's take on the Fallout series, made worse by Fallout 4 focusing more on the action and doing away with more RPG mechanics.

These discussions have kicked off once more with the release of the Fallout show, although now it's concerning the lore itself. Perhaps the biggest controversy was when some fans thought the show had made Fallout: New Vegas non-canon, but Todd Howard has since said this isn't the case.

Posted: Apr 26, 2024 2:58 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/fallout-3-bethesda-received-death-threats-from-toxic-fans/