Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky founded the Fallout media series, which consists of post-apocalyptic role-playing video games (and later action role-playing games) at Interplay Entertainment. Set in the first part of the third millennium, the series’ atompunk retrofuturistic scenario and artwork draw inspiration from the post-World War II American post-war culture, which combined optimism for the promises of technology with a pervasive fear of nuclear catastrophe. Wasteland, a 1988 video game created by Interplay Productions, was a precursor to Fallout. Fallout is seen of as Wasteland’s spiritual successor.

The series’ first title, Fallout, was developed by Black Isle Studios and released in 1997, and its sequel, Fallout 2, the following year. With the tactical role-playing game Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, development was handed to Micro Forté and 14 Degrees East. In 2004, Interplay closed Black Isle Studios, and continued to produce Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, an action game with role-playing elements for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, without Black Isle Studios. Fallout 3, the third entry in the main series, was released in 2008 by Bethesda Softworks, and was followed by Fallout: New Vegas, developed by Obsidian Entertainment released on October 19, 2010. Fallout 4 was released in 2015, and Fallout 76 released on November 14, 2018.

Bethesda Softworks owns the rights to the Fallout intellectual property. After acquiring it, Bethesda licensed the rights to make a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) version of Fallout to Interplay. The MMORPG got as far as beta stage under Interplay, but a prolonged legal battle between Bethesda Softworks and Interplay disrupted the development of the game, eventually resulting in its cancellation. Bethesda argued in court that Interplay had failed to fulfil the terms and conditions of the licensing contract. The case reached a resolution in early 2012.