Bethesda's post-apocalyptic series Fallout helped set the bar for modern RPGs, releasing multiple games in the franchise over two decades, alongside other developers like Interplay and Obsidian, that have shaped the gaming culture. Bethesda may not have made all the Fallout games, but the series has become more and more synonymous with the developer over the years, with most of the recent games produced by the studio like Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. The franchise has been one of the longer-running series in modern gaming, and thanks to a recent announcement fans can expect more Fallout in the future.
How near that future is, though, is still up for debate. There were seven years between Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, and while gamers had Fallout: New Vegas to keep them occupied in the interim, it seems like they might be in for a much longer wait before the release of Fallout 5. In a recent interview, Todd Howard confirmed that Fallout 5 was on the way, but considering what else the studio is working on at the moment, the next Falllout installment could be around a decade away. This is especially likely given that fans shouldn't expect any concrete news about Fallout 5 until after The Elder Scrolls 6 is out, but given that game's own journey towards completion, it makes Fallout 5 seem even more distant.
Bethesda's Current Pipeline
Game design is a nebulous and unpredictable beast. Games could be near to completion, only for the higher-ups to say that it's not going in the right direction and decide to pull the plug before it can be released, like the infamous Star Wars: 1313 or the ill-fated Fable Legends. The pre-production process can take years, even if a game is part of a series with established lore that the new title can borrow from. Guessing how long a game could take to make is almost impossible, and it can drive fans to distraction trying to second guess studios and estimate when games in development might finally be released.
While players may never know what goes on behind closed doors, anyone can see that Bethesda has had a lot on its plate in recent years. Most prominent in its upcoming slate of releases is Starfield, the first new IP from the studio in over two and a half decades. After years of secrecy, Bethesda has finally started to give fans a better look at the upcoming space-faring RPG and detailed the sheer scope of the game. Gamers will be able to explore a hundred different systems and around a thousand planets in Starfield, which is ambitious in every sense of the word. This is in addition to the diverse choice-led gameplay, the spaceship flight that players will be able to control, and the base-building aspects of Starfield as well.
Starfield seems like the top of Bethesda's list of priorities right now, especially as things ramp up now that the delayed launch date is approaching, but this isn't all the studio is contending with. It's still updating 2018's Fallout 76, an online RPG with an open-world destroyed by nuclear war typical of the series, and also working on The Elder Scrolls 6, another game that has been years in the making. Fans have been clamoring for another entry into the hugely popular Elder Scrolls series, especially after the success of the last game, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, but the follow-up installment still feels very far away.
The Pressures On Bethesda
Bethesda has a checkered past when it comes to game development and release schedules, like most major studios. It officially confirmed Fallout 4 during E3 2015 after teasing the game for a few weeks, and then shocked audiences by saying that it would be released later that same year. Some fans wish Bethesda had adopted the same strategy when it came to its other long-running series like The Elder Scrolls. First announced in 2018, by all accounts The Elder Scrolls 6 is still in pre-production, which means there's still a very long way to go before fans will be able to play it, especially for a series that usually offers such expansive settings.
The pressure is usually on studios – especially large and influential ones like Bethesda – to keep delivering bigger and better games. While this can mean that players get more bang for their buck, it might also mean that each iteration in a series takes a little longer to make, which is a frustrating trade-off to some. Fallout 76 also had a poor launch, and Bethesda has been working hard ever since its release to deliver a game that fans were happy with. This has increased the pressure on the studio to release another knockout title, as its most recent offerings have been a little disappointing in the eyes of some players.
Fallout 5's Future
There's definitely an argument about announcing games too early. Bethesda seems to have fallen into this trap a lot recently, first with Starfield, then Elder Scrolls 6, and now Fallout 5. Fans will undoubtedly be excited with the confirmation from Todd Howard that Fallout 5 is on the way, but his clarification that work will start after Elder Scrolls 6 is out was like dousing fans with a bucket of cold water once the reality sunk in. Elder Scrolls 6 isn't even in full production, and in all likelihood is years away at this point. The fact that work won't even start in earnest on Fallout 5 until that game is out in the open means that the next Fallout is potentially ten years away at least, and that might be a conservative estimate depending on the game's scope.
That can seem like a very, very long time to some players, but not all hope is lost. Todd Howard did hint at other projects underway at Bethesda which still remain a mystery, but could potentially be Fallout related. There are also rumors flying around about a Fallout: New Vegas sequel in development over at Obsidian, so that could scratch a similar itch. Regardless, there will still hopefully be plenty of Bethesda goodness for players to enjoy before Fallout 5 starts to take shape, and it's always important to remember that a proper amount of development time is always better than a game shipping in a broken, incomplete state.
Fallout 5 has been announced.