Fallout: New Vegas - "Wittier" Than FO3

[Malk]

On the contrary, given that Bethesda Game Studios is not the developer and Bethesda Softworks is merely acting as publisher, they can easily afford for the title to tank.

If New Vegas ends up being successful, Bethesda will collect all the money from sold copies, so failure is definitely not in their best interest. It's more affordable to Obsidian which has its own Alpha Protocol to rely on, than to Beth.