While the release of Amazon Prime's Fallout series was met with praise from viewers and critics, it still left longtime fans of Bethesda's post-apocalypse franchise questioning how the show fit into the game's canon. They have those answers now as Todd Howard, the longtime development lead for Fallout and Elder Scrolls, offered some clarity on the franchise's canon and where one key point from the show fits in relation to Fallout: New Vegas.
Howard, alongside Prime series executive producer Jonathan Nolan, sat down with IGN to discuss some of the finer points of the Fallout show's canon and, specifically, the destruction of Shady Sands. The locale was a well-known settlement in the Fallout universe that appeared or was mentioned in several games, the latest being 2010's Fallout: New Vegas, so its doom was met with surprise and question by many fans.
In response, Howard explained the show's creative team was “careful about the timeline.”
“There might be a little bit of confusion in some places,” Howard said. “But everything that happened in the previous games, including New Vegas, happened. We’re very careful about that.”
The reason for many fans' confusion over Sandy Sands' fate in the Fallout series was due to how relatively close together in the franchise's timeline New Vegas and Amazon's series are to each other. New Vegas is set in the year 2281, while the Prime series takes place in 2296, leading some fans to believe the events of New Vegas had been retconned for the show.
Howard went on to clarify that while he couldn't provide an exact timeframe for Sandy Sands' destruction, it took place very close to the end of Fallout: New Vegas.
Welcome to Shady Sands
Shady Sands' history in the Fallout franchise stretches back to the original 1997 game where it appeared as a small but thriving survivor settlement in California. The settlement would eventually give rise to the New California Republic, which would become the most powerful governing power in the western U.S. with its territory encompassing large swaths of California, Oregon, and Nevada.
The settlement would serve as the New California Republic's capital for a time and see its population grow to over 34,000 people, making it one of the largest settlements in the irradiated U.S. wasteland. It was last mentioned in-game in Fallout: New Vegas, as the settlement was one of many within the NCR drawing power from the restored Hoover Dam.
Amazon's Fallout series revealed that during this time, Rose MacLean fled Vault 33 and taken her young daughter, Lucy, with her and the pair eventually made a home in Sandy Sands after learning about her husband's past with Vault-Tec and the company's role in the nuclear war that took place. After informing Vault-Tec of Rose and Sandy Shores, the town was bombed by the company as it threatened Vault-Tec's plans for the world following The Great War.
Fallout is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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