Fallout 5 release date update leaves fans heartbroken

Gamers looking forward to Fallout 5 might want to take a seat, as a recent release date update confirms what we all feared: this game is a long, long, loooooong way away. Like, you know when you pick up your cat and they go all droopy and long and you laugh and call them a silly long boy? Times that level of long by a few thousand.

Todd Howard confirmed Fallout 5 is definitely on the way at Bethesda, but the unfortunate reality is that it's going to be a very long while yet. The team has been hard at work on Starfield, of course, and now that game is out, attention has turned to The Elder Scrolls VI. You may well be wondering, then, when Fallout fans will get another slice of the irradiated pie.

Take a look at our 10/10 review of Starfield below!

Recent official documents suggest The Elder Scrolls VI will arrive for Xbox and PC in 2026, which is actually much closer than I would have dared to expect. However, if we assume there's a similar length of time between The Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5 as there was between Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI, we'll be lucky if we see Fallout 5 by 2030.

The upshot of this is that we're probably going to have to wait the better part of a decade for the next Fallout game. Obviously we'd all rather Bethesda take its time and I have no doubt The Elder Scrolls VI will be incredibly special, but as a Fallout fan first and foremost it still hurts.

In the meantime we at least have frequent new updates for Fallout 76, plus rumours of a Fallout 3 remaster which should keep us happy. I can only assume it'll be a matter of months before Starfield modders basically build a whole-ass Fallout game from scratch too, so we've that to look forward to.