Music supervision and clearance for Fallout® 3 video game

In 2006, we were approached by Bethesda Softworks about handling music supervision and licensing for Fallout® 3 (in stores Fall, 2008), the third installment of the hugely popular Fallout® video game franchise. The game takes place in 2077, in a post-apocalyptic United States frozen in the early 1950s, which created a unique opportunity to program music from that era.

Our work consisted of exhaustively researching big band, pop standards, jump blues and other musical genres from the late 40s and early 50s, presenting our recommendations to Bethesda, and then licensing the approved tracks. Artists whose music was licensed for the game include The Ink Spots, Bob Crosby and Roy Brown, among others. We also worked with Bethesda on a promotional soundtrack CD sampler, as well as music for a Fallout® 3 television commercial.

Our thorough search for just the right tracks resulted in a game soundtrack that was brought in on budget and that served as the perfect counterpoint to the desolate, post-apocalyptic look and feel of Fallout® 3.