I don't typically have much love for billion-dollar corporations dropping the 'meet our legal department' hammer on no-budget modders who are just trying to exercise their creative muscles, but in this one instance I'm willing to let it slide: Bethesda has issued a cease-and-desist order to an "AI creator" who made a Fallout game set in New York City that runs in browsers.
That's actually overstating it: As Chris First explained in his X feed (via RPS), he "directed Claude and a studio of AI agents" to make the game for him. Nor was there any new creative thought injected into the process, First continued, saying he asked for a game that was "not inspired by" Fallout, but that was "exactly like Fallout."
This is the result.
Fallout: New York, a full Fallout game you play in your browser, built with Claude Opus 5.5.Quests. Dialogue trees. V.A.T.S. A working Pip-Boy.Zero texture files. Zero sound files. Every building, weapon, face and sound is generated by code. pic.twitter.com/58Vls0mOYxSeptember 28, 2026
I know that being playable in a browser is a limiting factor, but this is really just something I'd rather not play at all. It stands in such sharp contrast to mods like Fallout: London or Skyblivion, efforts that reflect genuine passion, commitment, and creativity—and yes, those mods are massive undertakings that require years of effort from hundreds of volunteers, but they also don't suck and I feel like maybe there's a lesson to be learned there.
Anyway, whether I want to play it or not is now a moot point, because yesterday First said he received a message from ZeniMax Media telling him to knock it off—specifically, that the domain name he registered for the project, fallout.nyc, infringes on the studio's IP rights.
I don't know if First was expecting sympathy for his plight, but he doesn't seem to be getting much of it. Some responses criticize him for calling the project "Fallout," which is just about daring Bethesda to do something, but there's also plenty of heat over the use of AI to make the thing. A few optimists suggest First would be fine if he just changed the name, but he doesn't seem inclined to pursue that course.
That's probably for the best: Maybe I'm being overly harsh here (although I don't think so) but the one clear drawback to that plan is that changing the name doesn't change the fact that it looks like garbola. Playing a low-poly Fallout in a browser isn't an especially impressive technical feat—you can do the same with Morrowind, and it actually looks like Morrowind—and if you just want some really cheap Fallout, Fallout 3 is $2.49 in the Steam Autumn Sale, or you can snag New Vegas for a fiver.
I do sympathize with First's urge for a proper new Fallout game: I'm a little tired of the formula, but it's been 11 years since Fallout 4 and that's too damn long. But this ain't it, as the kids say, and while I'm never going to sign up for the corporate cheerleading squad, I can't say I'm sorry to see this one consigned to the dustbin, where it belongs.
