Histories of <i>Fallout</i> : Competing Pasts and Brand Identities

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.