Fallout: The Frontier

Content Warning: Portions of the following entry contains mentions and/or depictions of sexual violence or abuse. If you need support or you or a loved one are in an abusive situation, please contact the National Sexual Violence Resource Center or call 1-800-656-HOPE.

Overview

Fallout: The Frontier is a mod for the 2010 role-playing video game Fallout: New Vegas. In 2021, just after the game's release, developers pulled the mod due to criticism over content and allegations that one team member posted pedophilic content on a personal art account.

History

In 2014, development on Fallout: The Frontier began.^[1] On March 13th, 2015, the YouTube account Fallout The Frontier released the first teaser trailer for Fallout: The Frontier. The post received more than 140,000 views in less than six years (shown below, left).

On January 13th, 2017, YouTuber maybenexttime shared the video "Fallout: The Frontier Official 'Year 3 The Courier' E3 Mod Trailer." Within four years, the video received more than 1.6 million views (shown below, right).

On December 25th, 2020, Twitter ^[2] user @FNVTheFrontier tweeted, "Fallout: The Frontiers slated release date is the 15th of January 2021!" The post received more than 1,000 likes and 170 retweets in less than two months (shown below).

Developers released the game on January 15th, 2021. Within hours of its release, increased interest in the game crashed the website NexusMods,^[5] which was hosting the game for downloads. They reported more than 82,000 unique downloads.^[3]

Reception

Controversy

Following the release of the mod, some players and reviewers criticized the game as being a secret "fetish mod," which developers filled with sexually questionable moments. On January 21st, 2021, for example, Twitter^[6] user @seinfelddahog tweeted," Haven't played Fallout Frontier yet but I am absolutely astounded by this one character just being a surrogate for the writers barely-disguised fetishes." The tweet received more than 3,200 likes and 500 retweets in less than one month (shown below).

Other controversial elements include a challenge wherein players have sex with a monster called a "Deathclaw." On January 24th, 2021, YouTuber Rostok K shared a video of the challenge, which received more than 162,000 views in less than two weeks (shown below).

Developer Controversy

On January 27th, 2020, Phobos95, a moderator on the Discord for Fallout: The Frontier, announced that the mod had been taken offline due to the discovery of "deeply disturbing" content on one of the developers' personal artist account. They wrote:

Some deeply concerning news has emerged in the past few hours. We have been recently notified that one of our developers, ZuTheSkunk, had posted animated pedophillic content on their personal artist accounts. The items in question are deeply disturbing to the entire team, and we condemn them in the strongest sense. ZuTheSkunk has since been removed from the Development Team and banned off of our Community Discord.

The following day, Thomas "tgspy," the project lead on The Frontier wrote a message that the developer team were removing problematic lines within the mod ^[2] They wrote, "We have received requests to remove some content provided to us by artists and voice actors, so we will be complying with these requests." During this time, Nexus Mods removed the mod, while the makers of the mod locked its official website.^[4]

Search Interest

External References