Todd Howard "stole" his brother's copy of Fallout during his early days at Bethesda "and never gave it back to him" as he "loved the vibe" of the RPG

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Todd Howard "stole" his brother's copy of Fallout during his early days at Bethesda "and never gave it back to him" as he "loved the vibe" of the RPG News By Anna Koselke published 9 February 2026

He "played it to death"

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Before he was the big Bethesda Game Studios boss, Todd Howard worked as a producer for the company – and during that time, he discovered the beauty of Fallout's post-apocalyptic wasteland … all thanks to a copy he snagged off his brother.

Yep, that's right. Todd Howard was introduced to Fallout via his sibling in 1997, as he tells Game Informer in a recent interview on the history of the series. It wasn't a Bethesda title at the time, having been developed and published by Interplay Productions, so Howard found out about it through his brother after his high praise of the RPG. "I was at Bethesda at the time when [Fallout] came out. It's my brother who actually played it first," he recalls. "He's like, 'Have you played Fallout?' And I said, 'I haven’t had the chance yet.' He said, 'You've gotta play it.'" That's when Howard did what any one of us would probably do to our brother: "I actually stole his disc and never gave it back to him." It's amusing, but Howard was infatuated with Fallout – a premonition of things to come for him and Bethesda, really, if you ask me. "I loved the vibe of that game," as he puts it.

"There were things that were sort of post-apocalyptic role-playing on the pen-and-paper side, to where you had Gamma World and, obviously, Wasteland, which was kind of a precursor to Fallout," Howard goes on, describing how Fallout felt like it stood apart. "So, I've always been interested in the rules of a world, and I felt that, obviously, the way the game played, but the rules of the world and the vibe of the world, they were just brilliant and so unique."

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He concludes with praise for the Vault Boy – the now-iconic face of the Fallout series – in the original game, and admits he "played it to death." I'm left wondering whether or not his brother ever asked for the copy back… and if he might now that the cat's out of the bag? I'm sure both have plenty of Fallout discs and whatnot in their lives now that Bethesda has the IP under its belt and Howard has directed the games since Fallout 3, but still. Principle, and all that.

Bethesda knows putting Switch 2's Indiana Jones on a real cart is a flex, but it still can't help but lock Fallout 4 and Oblivion Remastered to code-in-box launches

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Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. TOPICS Bethesda Game Studios Bethesda Softworks CATEGORIES PC Gaming Xbox Series X Xbox One PS5 PS4 Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo Switch Platforms Xbox PlayStation Nintendo Anna KoselkeSocial Links NavigationStaff Writer

After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.

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