http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58229

At a press event in the United Kingdom, Fallout 3 developer Bethesda today 
announced a new externally-developed entry in the post-apocalyptic 
role-playing series.
Titled Fallout New Vegas, it's being developed by Obsidian Entertainment 
(Neverwinter Nights 2, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II) with PC, 
PS3, and Xbox 360 versions planed for a simultaneous launch in 2010.

New Vegas will be an RPG in the style of Fallout 3, Bethesda noted, but the 
company did not confirm if it uses the same engine. The studio also stressed 
that it came up with the idea for New Vegas internally and then pitched it 
to Obsidian, not the other way around.

"It is not a sequel to Fallout 3," said Bethesda marketing VP Pete Hines. 
"It was just a great opportunity we thought to work with some guys who very 
clearly know Fallout--Feargus [Urquhart] and those guys were there in the 
early days of Fallout."

Obsidian Entertainment was founded in 2003 by several former employees of 
Black Isle Studios, the company responsible for the original Fallout titles.

"We approached them. And obviously they were like, 'Yeah!' That was a pretty 
easy conversation," Hines continued. "It's definitely an RPG. Same sort of 
experience as what folks got in Fallout 3. It's not Fallout Tactics, it's 
not Brotherhood of Steel. It's another Fallout game in that universe."

Obsidian is planning to release its espionage-based RPG Alpha Protocol later 
this year. The studio was also working on an RPG set in the Aliens universe 
until early this year, when it was revealed to be cancelled.

"[New Vegas] has no impact whatsoever on what [Fallout 3 director] Todd 
Howard and his guys are working on [internally at Bethesda]," added Hines.