Van Buren was the codename given to what would have been Fallout 3, a role-playing video game that was being developed by Black Isle Studios before the parent company, Interplay Entertainment, went bankrupt. This resulted in the company shutting down Black Isle, which in turn laid off the PC development team on December 8, 2003, effectively cancelling the game. Prior to its cancellation, Van Buren was set to carry on the Fallout series, but was not a sequel to Fallout 2. An official Fallout 3, unrelated to the abandoned Van Buren project, was developed by Bethesda Game Studios after Interplay sold the single-player rights of the franchise to Bethesda Softworks. Several Black Isle staff members went on to form Obsidian Entertainment, and many themes, factions and characters of Van Buren were incorporated in Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas, published by Bethesda Softworks in 2010. Gameplay Van Buren was planned to use a modified version of the SPECIAL system. Plot and setting Van Buren was set in the Western United States, taking place in Colorado, Arizona, Utah and Nevada. The game would have been set in 2253 and the player would start the game as an escaped prisoner; whether the character was wrongfully imprisoned or guilty was to be determined at character creation. The game would have started in a prison as it was attacked by an unnamed force. An explosion would knock the character unconscious, and the cell door would be open when he awakened. The player would then escape into the wasteland while being pursued by assailants. After leaving, the character would have the power to shape the destiny of the wasteland. Their interactions with organizations such as the Brotherhood of Steel and the burgeoning New Californian Republic (with both of these factions participating in a prolonged war with one another) could bolster or destroy the organizations, influencing people associated with them and eventually decide the fate of the region, much as in the previous two Fallout games. One of the more significant elements of the plot and back story of Van Buren was to be an ongoing war between the Brotherhood of Steel and the New Californian Republic. The player would be able to visit various prominent settlements and fortresses controlled by either of the factions and their actions there would influence the proceeding of the war. An example of how the player's interactions could alter the flow of