There's a type of myth that survives not because there's any evidence for it, but because it flatters the preconceptions of a particular group of people. Take the notion that Todd Howard, head honcho over at Bethesda Game Studios, clearly seethes with resentment about how much Obsidian knocked Fallout: New Vegas out of the park. Is there evidence for this? Nope—quite the opposite, actually—but it endures because it jibes with the worldview of certain Fallout fans who see Bethesda as perverting the series.
Regardless, here's one more bit of evidence for the 'Howard doesn't hate Obsidian' pile: in a chat with Game Informer (via GamesRadar), Howard said that, when it came to a non-Bethesda studio making a Fallout game, it was Obsidian or bust.
"They were the only choice," said Howard. "They had done something similar with Knights of the Old Republic 2, and we knew them really well." In 2004, Obsidian put out Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2—a follow-up to BioWare's KOTOR 1 that more than a few people (myself included) came to regard as their favourite of the two games, and that despite the fact Obsidian had barely over a year to make the whole thing.
So Bethesda knew Obsidian had form for doing great work in other people's series, which was just why Howard wanted to nab the studio for New Vegas. After all, the alternative was Fallout lying fallow: "We knew we were going onto Skyrim, the franchise was back, but we knew there was going to be a long break until Fallout 4—how can we keep this going?"
You give it to Obsidian, of course, both because of all the factors already listed and because the studio had "Fallout DNA," in the words of New Vegas' lead creative designer John Gonzalez. "There were people who had worked on the original title, and then also the second game," who were able to create "a very Obsidian-focused experience" that was "all about allowing the player to have tremendous amounts of narrative impact, narrative control."
It really paid off quite well. New Vegas is a classic, having sold over 11 million copies by 2015 and, as a result, no doubt made quite a bit of money for Bethesda itself. If I were Howard, then not only would I not resent Obsidian for Fallout: New Vegas, I'd be trying to get it to make me another one.
