After resuming work following a 'hold' in 2024, Fallout: Nuevo Mexico is now officially cancelled: 'The costs ahead, both financial and personal, are too great'

Fallout: Nuevo Mexico screenshot
(Image credit: Fallout: Nuevo Mexico)

After a rough 2024 that saw development briefly put "on hold" and then resumed a few months later, Fallout: Nuevo Mexico, an ambitious Fallout: New Vegas mod that promised to turn players loose amidst the irradiated wasteland of New Mexico just five years after the events of the original Fallout, has been cancelled.

"This project has been my passion, my obsession, and a huge part of my life for years," says a message posted on the Fallout: Nuevo Mexico Discord, attributed to project lead Zapshock. "I’ve poured thousands of hours into it, late nights, early mornings, and everything in between. I’ve met amazing people along the way, some who’ve become long term friends and helped me grow and evolve into a better person. Some of the best moments of my life have been spent bringing this world to life, and I’ll always be proud of the work we accomplished.

"But as much as I love this project, I need to prioritize my mental health and face reality. The team is small (less than four), the workload enormous, and the costs ahead, both financial and personal, are too great. Continuing forward simply isn’t sustainable for me and everyone involved, including voice actors."

Fallout: Nuevo Mexico was announced in 2021 and made quite an impression on PC Gamer's Rich Stanton when he eyeballed it in 2023, but the wheels seemed to come off in 2024 when the mod's YouTube channel was scrubbed of content and most of the channels on the Discord server were wiped. A couple months later, a message posted on Discord confirmed development had "been on hold for some time," and that "Zapshock has decided to step back from active participation in the community."

Unfortunate, but that sort of thing happens with big mods. But as noted by VG247, work resumed just a couple months later, and then a "reveal trailer" dropped in October 2024, showcasing a factional battle for dominance amidst the ruins of Mexico City, described as "the biggest hub in Fallout: Nuevo Mexico."

Fallout: México - Official Reveal Trailer | 🇲🇽 (English Dub) - YouTube Fallout: México - Official Reveal Trailer | 🇲🇽 (English Dub) - YouTube
Watch On

Now, though, the project has run aground again, and this time it seems permanent.

"To everyone who supported this project, from the kind words, the feedback, the excitement, to just believing in what we were trying to create, thank you from the bottom of my heart," the cancellation message states. "This message covers everything, so I kindly ask for your understanding."

The cancellation of Fallout: Nuevo Mexico comes just a few months after another big mod, Fallout: Vault 13, met the same fate. Fortunately for those eager to continue their post-nuclear adventures, the massive Fallout: London mod is still kicking: Following a successful release in July 2024, Team Folon announced in December that it has begun work on DLC that it hopes to have out sometime in 2025.

(Image credit: Fallout: Nuevo Mexico (Discord))
Fallout 4 cheatsNew Vegas console commandsSkyrim Anniversary EditionSkyrim console commandsSkyrim Special Edition mods

Fallout 4 cheats: Nuclear codes
New Vegas console commands: Stacked deck
Skyrim Anniversary Edition: What it includes
Skyrim console commands: Tune your Tamriel
Skyrim Special Edition mods: More for the Nords

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

Read more
Male and Female Vault Dweller holding guns and cresting a hill with ruined city in background
The New Vegas remake of the Fallout 3 that never was just got its first demo, not to be confused with the straight-up remake of the cancelled Fallout 3 or, indeed, Fallout 3
Skyblivion evil character
With the next Elder Scrolls and Fallout games still years away, here are 6 upcoming total conversion mods for Skyrim and Fallout 4 to get excited about
Mortimer Goth swanning around inside a New Vegas casino built inside the Sims 2
A Fallout: New Vegas fan is so fed up waiting for a remake he's decided to do it himself. The twist? He's making it in the Sims 2
Fallout 25th anniversary
'Fallout wasn't designed to have other players': Fallout co-creator Tim Cain was extremely wary of turning it into an MMO
WildStar Chua
Fallout's Tim Cain spent 6 years working on defunct MMO WildStar, twice as long as any other game, and thinks that might have something to do with why it failed
GTA 4 - Niko Bellic
GTA 5 mod recreating GTA 4's map nuked after 6 years of work because people noticed, and Rockstar insisted on a 'friendly takedown', if you know what I mean
Latest in RPG
Key art of the videogame Lunacid, showing a pale, long haired knight in purple armor contemplating a purple, flaming sword surrounded by the different phases of the moon.
One of my favorite indie RPGs is getting a follow-up made with FromSoftware's 25-year-old Super Mario Maker for first person dungeon crawlers
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 image - Henry riding a pink and blue striped horse while holding a fish
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 now has Steam Workshop support, and of course one of the first mods lets you adjust the 'jiggle physics'
Erenshor - A player and two simulated MMO party members stand on a plateau in front of a yellow landscape
This RuneScape-looking 'simulated MMORPG' has all the nostalgia without the drama because all the other 'players' are NPCs
New art of Harry and Kim from Disco Elysium, with Harry holding a lit molotov cocktail.
Despite Disco Elysium Mobile aiming to 'captivate the TikTok user,' it looks surprisingly decent—but it's still insulting to Disco's ousted creators
A cold-looking gameplay shot of Fate: Reawakened
Fate: Reawakened gives the nostalgic 20-year-old action RPG series a new lease on life
Henry from KCD2 wearing nice outfits
'Diversify your fashion endgame' with this Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 mod that gives Henry fly new gambesons, pourpoints, and caftans
Latest in News
Key art of the videogame Lunacid, showing a pale, long haired knight in purple armor contemplating a purple, flaming sword surrounded by the different phases of the moon.
One of my favorite indie RPGs is getting a follow-up made with FromSoftware's 25-year-old Super Mario Maker for first person dungeon crawlers
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 image - Henry riding a pink and blue striped horse while holding a fish
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 now has Steam Workshop support, and of course one of the first mods lets you adjust the 'jiggle physics'
Still image of Bastion holding a bird, taken from Microsoft's Copilot for Gaming reveal trailer
Microsoft unveils Copilot for Gaming, an AI-powered 'ultimate gaming sidekick' that will let you talk to your console so you don't have to talk to your friends
Erenshor - A player and two simulated MMO party members stand on a plateau in front of a yellow landscape
This RuneScape-looking 'simulated MMORPG' has all the nostalgia without the drama because all the other 'players' are NPCs
Pirate Bay co-founder Carl Lundstrom
Pirate Bay co-founder and far-right politician found dead after plane crash
Sunset in the desert in Hello Sunshine
Hello Sunshine is a desert survival sandbox where you live in the literal shadow of the colossus