We don’t mind if Bethesda decides to prove everyone wrong if it means they’re speeding up the progress on a new Fallout game. After the success of the Amazon Prime Fallout TV show, the company’s player base rose to 5 million active players across all their titles. Many were hopeful that this would spur the company to jumpstart their plans on Fallout 5, but the rest of us were certain that nothing would pull them away from working on the next Elder Scroll VI game that was in the works. While we still don’t know how soon we can see the next Fallout game, an Xbox insider confirmed that it might be released “sooner rather than later.”
It’s enough to spark hope in the hearts of yearning fans but just vague enough that it could be at least another 5 years before we see a hint of the next game make an appearance.
What Has Brought Us Closer to a New Fallout Game?
The last Fallout title, Fallout 76, was released on November 14, 2018. Before that, Fallout 4 came out in 2015. It’s safe to say that fans had lost hope that they would ever see a new Fallout game release in this lifetime. The release of the Fallout TV show was an unusual choice, as the makers could have picked something a lot more trendy to bring active players flocking to watch it instead of counting on the resting user base of Fallout. Still, there was something timeless about the post-apocalyptic wastelands of California that revived every gamer’s passion for the series once more.
Players, both old and new, decided to log into the Fallout game of their choice, with Fallout 76 seeing over 1 million active players deciding to test their hands at survival. Across the Fallout titles, the player base rose to 5 million—staggering numbers to say the least. Despite its revived popularity, it’s difficult to predict when the next Fallout game will arrive considering the company already has its hands full with existing projects.
The only ray of hope in the darkness has been Xbox insider, Windows Central’s Jez Corden, sharing that the company has taken note of the game’s renewed popularity. According to ComicBook Gaming, on an episode of The Xbox Two podcast, Corden stated that the company is, “formulating plans on how to get the next Fallout here for us sooner rather than later.”
What Does This Mean For the Upcoming Fallout Game?
There are two possible ways the new Fallout game could pan out. In the first scenario, Xbox might have Bethesda speed up the timeline on Elder Scroll 6 and then take on the next Fallout game when they are done. The Elder Scroll game is nowhere close to being done so we could still be years away from new Fallout-related releases. Regardless of how they speed things up, it will still be an extensive labor of love. Working simultaneously on both games won’t really pan out well for either games, and that’s a strategy best left behind.
Another possible game plan is for Xbox to assign the game to someone other than Bethesda, so they can still see a new Fallout game release in the next few years. Normally we’d be against the games switching hands and losing their original charm in the process but online sources suggest that one of the studios that could be tasked with the next game is Obsidian Entertainment. The company was responsible for the Fallout: New Vegas game, which is arguably one of the most popular titles in the series even today.
If the Fallout game news was followed by a new project to bring Fallout: New Vegas 2 instead of Fallout 5, we wouldn’t be mad and we’re sure a majority of players would agree with the move. While this seems like a more desirable outcome, it’s not like Obsidian Entertainment is sitting idle with nothing to do either. The company is currently busy with its work on Avowed, which has a release date in autumn 2024, and The Outer World 2, which is speculated to have an early 2026 release date in mind. Maybe the new Fallout game will be outsourced entirely to someone else? We’d prefer to wait if that is our only option.
Fallout Game News—What Else Do We Know About the Next Fallout Title?
The Gaming Bible’s addition to the Fallout 5 news suggests that the game could be offered as an Xbox and PC exclusive whenever it does make it to release. This news might be upsetting to PlayStation fans who were hoping that the rumors of a PlayStation port would imply that future games would adopt a more cross-platform approach. Considering the game’s popularity, it may not critically hurt the company’s sales numbers to stick to its exclusive approach. With a release for the new Fallout game nowhere in the works, however, this news might be irrelevant when it’s finally time for release. We could be in 2030, with entirely different gaming platform integrations by then.
In addition to this, GameRant also had some theories on where the next Fallout game could be set. Fans of the franchise have suggested that the Fallout 5 game could return players back to the New California Republic, taking them to San Francisco to tie the game back to the TV series and previous games. A completely new setting would shake things up nicely too, but we’ll have to wait to see which direction the game actually plans to go.
An article by IGN, quoting director Todd Howard, suggests that at least two projects are in development but there is no information available on what these could be and when we could see its release. One of these could be a Fallout 3 remaster, but we haven’t seen any other updates on this other than the leaked FTC documents. In all honesty, a large part of the Fallout games news we have is hypothetical, drawing for one-liners and assumptions about the upcoming game. Bethesda has had its eyes on a new Fallout game since 2022 as interviews with Todd Howard seem to suggest, but how concrete their plans are and what progress has been made is anyone’s guess.
As we keep our eyes peeled for more Fallout 5 news, there are Fallout 4 next-gen updates out for those who want to keep up with the current happenings in-game. We might just have to count on such upgrades to the existing titles for the next few years until some decisions are made on who will lead the next Fallout game.
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