Fallout: New Vegas Strip Content was Cut to Run on Console

The 2010 Fallout spin-off Fallout: New Vegas received very positive reviews, but some fans did not find the Strip part, the heart of New Vegas, satisfying. Despite the positive reception of the main game, it was usually described by some players as "underwhelming" or "disappointing." Game Director Josh Sawyer recently shared the story behind, and according to him, the Strip was actually very impressive in the beginning.

Talking to Edge Magazine (spotted by Games Radar+), Josh Sawyer recalled that Bethesda took over the game's development from Interplay in 2017, and the developers were working on bringing Fallout to the console. Despite offering some "quite helpful" information about RPG games, "a lot of stuff that is taken as institutional knowledge" in Bethesda was not synchronized to the New Vegas team. So when they tested the Strip on the console, the team thought, "Oh my God, this isn't going to run." 

If you are curious about how impressive the Strip was at first, it's too bad only the developers would know. Luckily, the Strip Trailer from 14 years ago tells their ambitions and visions for it. 

It does sound very attractive when the lead artist described the Strip as where developers "put the most amount of work in terms of design," and the creative design lead says, "The scope and scale of the Strip is just something new." However, the team's ambitious idea was restrained, and they "had to split up the Strip.” In the end, "there was a lot of content that was cut." 

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