Bethesda has told a man to stop making a Fallout game out of his own head. That is usually the kind of story that makes people unhappy for the man getting the letter. In this case, the game looked bad enough that the writer of the report is glad Bethesda sent it.
The Man Behind Fallout: New York
Chris First used AI to build the game. He told RPS that he directed Claude and a studio of AI agents to make it for him. He did not ask the AI to add any new ideas. Instead, he wanted something that looked exactly like Fallout.
The result is playable in a browser, but the writer says it is so bad that they would rather not play it at all.
Why Bethesda Stepped In
ZeniMax Media, which owns Bethesda, contacted First yesterday. They told him that the domain name he bought for the project, fallout.nyc, breaks the studio’s IP rights. The company asked him to stop.
First does not seem to be getting much sympathy for his trouble. Some people criticise him for calling the project “Fallout” in the first place, which the writer calls a way of daring Bethesda to act. Plenty of others are upset about the use of AI to make the game. A few people suggest First could keep going if he simply changed the name, but he does not appear to want to do that.
Fallout: New York vs. The Mods That Beat It
The writer compares Fallout: New York to other fan projects that took far more effort and produced far better results. Mods like Fallout: London and Skyblivion required years of work from hundreds of volunteers. They do not look bad.
| Project | How It Was Made | What The Writer Says |
|---|---|---|
| Fallout: New York | Directed by AI agents | Looks terrible, playable in a browser |
| Fallout: London | Built by hundreds of volunteers | Requires years of work, does not look bad |
| Skyblivion | Built by hundreds of volunteers | Requires years of work, does not look bad |
The comparison is stark. One project uses AI to copy an existing game, and the other takes actual human labour over years. The writer suggests the lesson is simple: putting in the effort matters.
The Price Of Cheap Fallout
The writer points out that playing a low-poly Fallout in a browser is not a hard trick. You can do the same with Morrowind, and it actually looks like Morrowind. If you want cheap Fallout, the writer offers a solution: Fallout 3 costs $2.49 in the Steam Autumn Sale, and New Vegas can be had for five dollars.
The writer does not think First was expecting much sympathy. He is probably right. The project was built on borrowed ideas, run through an AI that copied them without adding anything new, and posted online under a name that belonged to someone else.
What The Writer Thinks
The writer admits they sympathise with First’s desire for a new Fallout game. Fallout 4 came out 11 years ago, and the wait has been long. But this is not the game to end it.
The writer closes by saying they are glad the project is gone. It belongs in the dustbin.
The story is small. A man used AI to copy a game he did not own, called it by that game’s name, and got caught. The corporate lawyers did their job, and the writer found the whole thing amusing.
Source material: “For once, I'm happy to see expensive corporate lawyers forcing a fan project offline,” PC Gamer.
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