Fallout: New Vegas and Horizon: Zero Dawn lead writer John Gonzalez returns to Obsidian

John Gonzalez, lead writer on Fallout: New Vegas and Horizon: Zero Dawn, has announced his return to Obsidian Entertainment after 14 years elsewhere in the industry – but not, he suggests, to work on a Fallout: New Vegas 2.

Gonzalez originally joined Obsidian in 2008, after a two year stint as lead narrative designer at Ubisoft. He was only with Obsidian for a little over two years, but his impact – as “lead story guy” on the hugely beloved Fallout: New Vegas – was significant. He was responsible for its quest and “most of” its dialogue, introducing characters such as Mr. House and Yes Man.

After that, Gonzalez spend two and a half years at Monolith Productions, working as lead narrative designer on the acclaimed Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and in 2016 he made the move to Guerrilla Games, where he served as narrative director on the hugely popular Horizon: Zero Dawn and its sequel. Since then he’s worked on a number of smaller projects – including his “ultimate video game novel” God Mode – and now he’s come full circle.

Gonzalez announced his return to Obsidian Enterintament in a brief post on LinkedIn, and his updated profile confirms he’s officially joined as the studio’s new creative director. As to what he’ll be working on, that isn’t yet known beyond vague allusions to “exciting times”. Gonalez did, however, append a quick note adding, “No, it’s not Fallout: New Vegas 2.”

Of course, “exciting times” at Obsidian is a tantalising prospect given the studio’s usual stellar output – which in recent years has included The Outer Worlds, Grounded, and Pentiment. Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 are up next for the studio, but it’s unlikely Gonalez will have much, if any, involvement with those, seeing as the first is out in three weeks and the second is out this year. All of which suggests he’s been drafted in to help imagine Obsidan’s next project.

The question, though, is whether Gonzalez’s attempt to get ahead of the Fallout: New Vegas 2 speculation is genuine or a cheeky bit of misdirection. After all, back in 2022, it was reported Obsidian was in “very early” talks with Microsoft to work on a sequel to its much-loved post-apocalyptic RPG, and that there was “a lot of interest to make it happen.”

Almost three years later, there’s been no hint of an update, so it’s unclear if those talks were in any way fruitful. But even if Gonzalez hasn’t been drafted in to work on a Fallout: New Vegas sequel, there’s enough semantic wiggle room in his denial to still leave hope among fans that some form of new Fallout might be on the cards. Still, with Gonzalez having only just joined Obsidian in January, it’ll likely be some time before we learn anything more – especially with two big new Obsidian RPGs releasing this year.