Fallout 3 was initially under development 由 Black Isle Studios, a studio owned 由 Interplay Entertainment, under the working 标题 面包车, 范 Buren. Interplay Entertainment closed down Black Isle Studios before the game could be completed, and the license to develop Fallout 3 was sold for a $1,175,000 minimum guaranteed advance against royalties to Bethesda Softworks, a studio primarily known as the developer of the The Elder Scrolls series.[3] Bethesda's Fallout 3 however, was developed from scratch, using neither 面包车, 范 Buren code, nor any other materials created 由 Black Isle Studios. In May 2007, a playable technology demo of the canceled project was released to the public.[4]

While Fallout and Fallout 2 feature turn-based combat and top-down isometric view in a 2-D engine, Fallout 3 features real-time combat and first 或者 third person view in a 3-D engine. Fallout Tactics and the canceled 面包车, 范 Buren featured both turn-based and real-time combat and a top-down view.
Perks and Traits have been merged. In Fallout and Fallout 2, Traits were chosen at character creation, and were commonly a combination of a powerful advantage and a potent disadvantage, where Perks were purely advantageous.
In the SPECIAL character system, the number of skills has been reduced from 18 to 13, traits have been removed and perks are selected every level instead of every 3 to 4 levels.