Fallout Dev Sets The Record Straight On Timeline Controversy

In one of the episodes we visit Vault 4, which hosts a whole bunch of mutants and survivors of a tragedy. We learn that a lot of them come from the city of Shady Sands, a bustling town in the wasteland, capital of the New California Republic introduced back in the first “Fallout” game. This is where Maximus was raised, and where Lucy lived for a while. 

Then the city fell when a Vault-Tec employee, seeing the threat of a flourishing city on the surface not led by Vault-Tec, detonated a nuke that obliterated the entire Shady Sands. The problem seems to stem from a single shot of a chalkboard in Vault 4 that teaches the history of the New California Republic. The chalkboard puts the fall of Shady Sands as happening in 2277, followed by a drawing of a nuke exploding. 

Fans believe this overlaps with the games, as “Fallout: New Vegas” is supposed to take place in 2281, and in that game, Shady Sands is a vibrant and very much intact town. This led some “Fallout” fans to claim that the “New Vegas” storyline was being retconned out of “Fallout” lore altogether. Given that “New Vegas” is the one main game in the franchise not produced by Bethesda Game Studios, who helped produce the show, it is reasonable to think they might want to erase the game from the new canon.

Except, as Bethesda game designer Emil Pagliarulo said, the game is very much still canon. So what happened to Shady Sands? Well, the date could simply be a mistake on the part of the “Fallout” TV show. Or perhaps it is a clever hint that season 2 will show us more of the decline of Shady Sands.