Lmao that site you linked uses VGChartz as a source. Worthless.
Here's a dose of reality, Interplay Stockholdler Forum circa 2004.
You're a literal retard. Interplay was a small to mid-sized publisher, selling a few 100k was considered good for them. 'Muh atleast a million' is another one of your schizoid fantasies.
You forget, this wasn't the 90s anymore, where video games were mostly just sprites and a few 3D images. Video games get progressively more expensive to make as developers have to make more robust 3D environments and models (LOL Raider Matron and her ample chest) and take more time to iron out glitches and fix the games. In the 6th console generation, even "decent" games like the Star Wars EPIII movie tie-in game, or the Spider Man 2002 game, made millions of sales; 300k is absolutely pathetic.
And when the Fallout fans heard that Interplay was making BoS2 instead of Van Buren, that drove more fans away; fans who were waiting for a proper Fallout 3. So even the audience for Fallout ran away, outside of the bad reviews and subpar sales, which is why BoS left such a bad taste in the mouths of the Fallout fans; it was their Last Jedi, the last straw that caused many to walk away. Combine that with poor sales figures that even your decent movie tie-in games could beat, and it was game over for Interplay.
If such sales were a decent catch for Interplay, they would not only have made Fallout BoS 2, but also Van Buren as well. They weren't able to, because they were a sinking ship that had to fire most of its staff in 2004 because they could no longer make ends meet. You don't make such bonehead moves unless you're burning the company to the ground yourself because it's going to sink anyways, and you might as well save some cash and sell some IPs before you go fully down under.
my problem with NMA is that honestly the interplay fallouts weren't even that good. the first fallout was a proof of concept, but it was incredibly short with only a few legit workable builds (seriously try playing melee, big guns, or unarmed) even the devs knew it wasn't a big game which is why it had that 500 day limit.
there's also a reason they never talk much about tactics or BOS either.
leaving fallout 2 which no one plays without the unoffical patches. so its an entire website devoted to one game from 25 years ago. which is also odd considering how many pc games from that era were legit great. like imagine if there was a forum thats spend the last 20 years bitching about Arcanum
I'll have to agree with you on that one. Not only are the older games worse on terms of music and gameplay (you know, two things that MAKE a video game more fun) but they aren't the free, "do-everything" open worlds that their fans proclaim them to be. It would've been fun being able to talk down the Enclave the same way you talk down the Master, or to play as a Super Mutant in Fallout 1 and tear down the Brotherhood of Steel for knowingly sending you to your death. Hey, at least KOTOR let you choose to become the big bad Dark Lord yourself.
The fans of the older Fallout games shit on Fallout 3 and 4 for their railroading, especially when Fallout 3 railroads you into becoming an ally of the Brotherhood in the war against the Enclave, yet they say nothing when Fallout 2 railroads you into destroying the Enclave no matter what (sounds familiar) and Fallout 1 doesn't even let you play as a Super Mutant, despite there being a specific ending where you do become a mutant and join them. I'm pretty sure some dipshit Enclave politician would be easier to talk down than some mastermind super-mutant with psychic powers, and I'm pretty sure playing as a Super Mutant and ripping apart power-armored Brotherhood Paladins with your bare hands would've been fun.
And NMA fans can't tell me it's because they don't want you playing as the bad guys, even back in '98, we had games like Starcraft Brood War where two thirds of the game consists of you playing AS cold-blooded imperialist motherfuckers who would crack people's skulls open for getting in their way. So even power fantasies where you play as open villains weren't that strange in that era, either. Heck, that game's first tutorial campaign mission had you lead your space marines to slaughter a band of uppity rebels down to the last man, because the local planetary governor wanted this problem "dealt with" and he didn't want you to take any prisoners.
And yes, Starcraft was a great PC game from that very same era as Fallout 1 and 2, and it practically dominated the RTS genre for a few years and became a national sport.