Histories of Fallout: Competing pasts and brand identities

Wright, Esther 2025. Histories of Fallout: Competing pasts and brand identities. Games and Culture

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Abstract

The Fallout franchise has a long and storied history. Brand rights have changed hands several times since the late 1990s and now sit with Bethesda Softworks who developed and published Fallout 3 (2008), Fallout 4 (2015), and Fallout 76 (2018) to critical and commercial success. Based on analysis of paratextual materials, this article examines the ways that Bethesda used history to stake a claim for their vision for Fallout, utilising the studio’s considerable marketing power to (re)write the history of Fallout over the last two decades. It charts how Bethesda’s company history, the history of the Fallout brand, and American mid-century imaginaries were interwoven into a promotional discourse underscoring Bethesda’s position as gatekeeper: a trusted pair of hands to both curate the history of Fallout and guide the development of the franchise in the present and future.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D839 Post-war History, 1945 on E History America > E151 United States (General)
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	1555-4120
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	12 November 2025
Date of Acceptance:	12 November 2025
Last Modified:	13 Nov 2025 10:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182349

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