According to leaks, Fallout 5 is very much on its way. Great. I’m looking forward to playing it sometime in the 2040s.
It’s slightly old news at this point, but yes, Bethesda is supposedly working on a sequel to Fallout 4.
Actually, they’re apparently working on a bunch of new Fallout projects. These include, but are not limited to, Fallout 5, something akin to Fallout: New Vegas 2, Fallout 3 Remastered, and even some new DLC for Fallout 4.
As far as the Fallout: New Vegas 2, Fallout 3 Remastered, and Fallout 5 rumours are concerned, these originated back in July from a comment made by VGC’s Jordan Middler, but have since been corroborated by several different sources.
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Beyond that, we don’t know any specifics. All we can say for sure is that Microsoft and Bethesda are keen to push the Fallout franchise, following the success of Amazon’s Fallout TV series.
Obviously, Bethesda is a little busy at the moment, as they’re working on this small indie title called The Elder Scrolls VI.
With that in mind, I’d wager that they’ll tackle the development of Fallout 5 themselves, and Microsoft will outsource the other projects to different studios (much in the same way they did with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered).
The thing is, even if they do only tackle Fallout 5, production on The Elder Scrolls VI reportedly began back in 2018. Even if it were to come out next year, we could probably expect a similar development timescale for Fallout 5.
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That’s a very long-winded way of saying that I’d be surprised if you got your hands on the next mainline Fallout game before 2033, which is probably why folks over on the r/Fallout subreddit are already assuming the worst.
“A decade after Fallout 4 released, and they're only just thinking about starting to make a sequel… Damn”, commented user Avenger1324.
“Maybe this is a bit entitled to say, but I feel like the amount of development time between sequels has just swelled to ridiculous levels”, replied user DefinitionofFailure.
“We used to think waiting 3 or 4 years was a long wait, and now for games like this, we are looking at around 15+ year gaps, with this likely to widen even further if the industry doesn't address it.”
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“The gap between 3 and 4 was 7 years, and it took 10 years for FO5 to be greenlit”, commented user Pilgrimhaxxter69.
“I know game development is difficult, but for a company owned by Microsoft and to let a brand like Fallout languish is absurd.”
Yup. Honestly, I don’t have anything further to add, because the commenters are 100% correct.
Development times have ballooned to ridiculous lengths over the past decade, and the video game industry is all the worse for it. The focus always seems to be on graphical fidelity, which has also resulted in rising development costs.
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Admittedly, COVID is partially to blame for some of the extra wait time, but only fractionally. Developers and publishers need to abandon their obsession with making their games look incredible and focus on making them look serviceable instead. Otherwise, we’ll likely all be in nursing homes before we even lay our eyes on the first trailer for Fallout 5.
Topics: Fallout, Bethesda, Microsoft, The Elder Scrolls 6