The Elder Scrolls 6 could also be the subsequent large model new online game introduced by Bethesda to be in the works, however Fallout is the franchise the studio is doing the most in proper now, Todd Howard has informed IGN.
Fallout Season 2 is ready to hit Prime Video this month, and whereas Bethesda has a new Fallout: New Vegas bundle, there’s no phrase but on a Fallout remaster or a Fallout: New Vegas 2 to capitalize on the surge of curiosity in the franchise.
There was no point out made throughout the current Fallout Day broadcast of a Fallout: New Vegas remaster, which some (together with Danny Trejo!) had known as on Bethesda to develop. Certainly, there have been no new Fallout video games introduced in any respect. Discover out every little thing introduced throughout the Fallout Day broadcast right here.
However there are all types of rumors floating round about potential Fallout remakes now that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is out the door (Fallout 3 Remastered was leaked again in 2023, however these plans could have modified). And we all know Bethesda needs to finally get to Fallout 5, albeit after The Elder Scrolls 6.
The final we heard on Fallout 5, by the means, was again in June 2024, when Todd Howard stated he wasn’t in dashing it out the door. Quick ahead a yr and a half, and IGN had the likelihood to quiz Todd Howard on all issues Fallout, alongside Kevin Beatty, Head of Product for Samsung Gaming, Interactive Experiences, and Rising Tech (Bethesda and Xbox just lately introduced a partnership with Amazon and Samsung to stream Season 1 for free on Samsung TV Plus forward of Season 2). In the interview, Howard remained coy when requested immediately about a variety of unannounced initiatives, however did provide a tantalizing tease that ought to get Fallout followers excited.
We began by asking Howard if the explosive success of the Fallout TV present had prompted Bethesda to alter its plans for new Fallout video games, both creatively or timeline-wise. Howard denied that, saying Bethesda already had a plan for the Fallout video games it needed to make.
“No, it hasn’t,” he replied. “We had a plan for the video games we have been going to make. The TV present was half clearly of our Fallout plan so far as a franchise. And in a lot of how, I view it as an entry, as a sport entry. Video games are one lens into the world, the TV present is one other lens into the world.
“The one factor it has led us to do is persons are coming again to the video games which can be already obtainable. So, you are seeing file numbers once more again in Fallout 4, from the first season, once more, in this season. Fallout 76 clearly is a sport that we have continued to replace for the final seven years. In order that’s most likely the one the place we actually see engaged audiences.
“So, the one factor it is made us do is lean into that. We all know that we now have an viewers there in that sport in explicit. And the Burning Springs replace that simply got here out, and having Walton Goggins in the sport is The Ghoul, simply there’s some actually, actually good alternatives there.”
We then requested Howard if Bethesda being owned by Microsoft had made it possible that the firm may companion with, for instance, Obsidian, developer of the unique Fallout: New Vegas, or Wasteland developer inXile — each of that are Xbox studios — on a new Fallout: New Vegas sport whereas followers wait for Fallout 5.
Once more, Howard was coy in his response. “We have had a long-term plan for Fallout, and so I want I may speak about all these at this time,” he stated. “I am going to simply say this, it is the franchise that we’re doing the most in proper now.”
That cryptic tease at the finish will likely be of curiosity to The Elder Scrolls followers patiently ready for The Elder Scrolls 6 to come out. While that sport is clearly of a large focus internally at Bethesda, it’s attention-grabbing to study that there’s a lot extra going on for Fallout.
And eventually on this subject, we requested Howard if the success of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which has seen over 4 million gamers because it shadow-dropped earlier this yr, was a repeatable trick for a Fallout 3 Remastered. Howard as soon as once more saved his playing cards shut to his chest, and reiterated a level he’s been making a lot in interviews currently.
“I’ll simply say that the Oblivion Remaster, we’re actually, actually happy with how effectively it did, it was a very lengthy undertaking too, and never simply in the way it was obtained, the capacity to shadow drop it, and the response to doing that,” he stated. “I like to do this with video games as a lot as doable. I really like the second that you just discover out about a sport.”
Howard continued: “And I like to take into consideration when anyone presses play, what’s in their head? What do they assume? What’s their expectation? What’s their pleasure degree? What do they consider the factor they’re about to play? And so, I like to again up from that second with how we speak about it, and typically there are large gaps.”
Large gaps certainly. The final mainline Fallout sport was Fallout 4, which was launched in 2015. DLC content material for the entry was steadily launched for PC and consoles over the subsequent yr, and in 2018, Bethesda launched its multiplayer-centered offshoot, Fallout 76. While followers flocked to the West Virginia-set open-world RPG over time (and after a rocky launch), it wasn’t till the premiere of Prime Video’s Fallout TV present that the Bethesda sequence leveled up in phrases of consideration.
Photograph by Gilbert Flores/Selection by way of Getty Photographs.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.