Almost every major video game series has books based on them.

Fallout has been around almost my entire life and I still haven't found one book based on the Fallout universe or even a close knock-off. How is this possible?

I know there is tons of amateur fan fiction floating around the internet, but are there any published books that explore the Fallout universe or change it only enough to avoid the wrath or copyright?

Do not recommend "The Road".... I found it pretty boring.

I wouldn't want books based on Fallout. Bad enough every developer has their own take on things. To through authors into the mix

But over the years I have come across books that might have and some have helped inspired Fallout. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr for example.

Bethesda/Zenimax may not have found an author they want to work with for the series. Or they just don't think a Fallout book series would sell very well. Any number of reasons really. Hell the Elder Scrolls only got two books and its pretty much Bethesda's flagship series.

Myself, I'd shamelessly buy them. The Elder Scrolls books were pretty decent IMO. Although they read a bit like fan-fiction.

Note that the release of novels based on video games started at about the time Fallout's original run was fading. When it became popular, Fallout had effectively died. The first FO3 had its funding pulled at 90% completion, and interplay forced money into the abortion that was Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel and thought it was still viable for a sequel.

Fallout resurged in 2008, ten years since the last well-recieved installment of Fallout, and New Vegas was released in 2010. FO4 will likely be announced within a year or two, making the next installment 7-8 years after the glorious resurgance (god, that's depressing). Compare this with the 2-4 year release cycle of other popular games.

Simply put, the conditions to release a Fallout novel aren't like those of other series. That, and considering some of gamesas's issues with writing...