Fallout: New Vegas lead is “embarrassed” by the Amazon show’s writing

Fallout: New Vegas lead designer Chris Avellone has admitted he feels “embarrassed” by some of the dialogue in the Amazon Prime show.

For years, adaptations of video games, both in film and TV, had a pretty poor reputation. However, in recent times, they’ve spawned some of the most popular and critically acclaimed projects on the big and small screen, whether it’s A Minecraft Movie or HBO’s The Last of Us.

One of the best examples is Amazon Prime’s Fallout series, which tells an original story within the same universe as Bethesda’s iconic RPG series. Season 2, which ended in early 2026, takes Lucy and co. to New Vegas, the setting of Obsidian’s 2010 spin-off.

However, Obsidian’s co-founder, despite being full of praise for the performances of Walton Goggins and Ella Purnell, was less than impressed with the show’s script.

Chris Avellone calls out Fallout TV show’s “script quality”

“I kind of wish the game writing for TV shows like that where they’re mimicking a game, would kind of elevate a bit,” he told Insider Gaming. “Edgerunners was really cool, no problems there but sometimes I just wish the script quality on the Fallout TV show was a little higher.”

“I guess I feel embarrassed when I see some of the lines being done but it’s a fun show.”

Bethesda

He went on to speculate about why the writing, in his opinion, wasn’t up to the standard of the games the show was pulling from.

“I don’t mean to put all Hollywood writers in this category but I think some of them still struggle with, ‘Okay, well I’m writing a game franchise and obviously those game writers didn’t really know what they were doing because I’m a respected Hollywood writer and I know how these things are supposed to look,” he explained, before adding:

“So I think for some of them it’s really easy to dismiss that work and go in their own direction, which they think is more solid, but the problem is […] they probably haven’t played Fallout 3 or Fallout 4 or New Vegas, so a lot of the context has gone as well as opportunities.”

He then clarified that he doesn’t think all writers are guilty of this, but Avellone believes the “general pattern” is that once studios have secured the rights to a game, they want to “make it their own” and come up with their take on the franchise.

Even so, this clearly hasn’t impacted the performance of Fallout, as Season 3 has already begun filming. However, the producer has confirmed that it’s set to make big changes to the games.