Bethesda kills AI fan's viral Fallout game, much to their chagrin

A viral, fan-made Fallout game that used Claude AI to take the post-apocalyptic RPG series to New York is no more, following an apparent cease-and-desist notice from Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax.

Earlier this week, an AI enthusiast took to the global town square to unveil Fallout: New York. Using Claude Opus 5.5, the browser game featured 117 unique locations, 112 characters, 46 weapons, and 0 audio files, but, well, every sound was made using code, so that was fine.

At the time of writing, the video attached to the tweet has been viewed 3.5 million times, though the reaction isn't entirely universal. To some, a pungent pile of AI slop. To others, the brimming sign of a bold and bright future. Regardless, at least one of those 3.5 million works for ZeniMax's legal department, so the project is no more.

Sharing the apparent cease-and-desist notice to Twitter, the creator behind the AI game has some choice words for Bethesda and the gang.

"Hey, [Bethesda], how about you make a Fallout game instead so I don't have to?" they tweet. "Sorry to everyone who enjoyed the game! But the suits got involved and the fun is over."

While few onlookers are surprised, the self-described "AI creative" had initially hoped Bethesda would leave them alone. In reply to someone who said Bethesda would come knocking on the original post, the Fallout fan had the following to say:

"It's all free and I make 0 money on it. I hope they don't ask me to take it down. I really love Fallout and this was just a fun tech demo. But I should add a quest where you have to serve someone papers, but they keep running away."

Yeah, about that.

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