With the success of Prime Video's Fallout television series, many viewers have decided to test their own ability to survive the post-apocalyptic wasteland through the games that the show is based on.
Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 76 have all received a boost in player count since the debut of the hit television series. Despite the renewed interest in these older games, many are also wondering when we can expect a new mainline Fallout game.
In an interview with IGN, Todd Howard, director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, briefly touched on the various projects currently in development at Bethesda Game Studios. And while he couldn't provide any firm release dates, he did mention plans for Fallout 5.
I'm going to avoid putting dates on anything. I've learned that the hard way. So obviously, our focus as far as new development right now is Elder Scrolls VI, but that doesn't mean that we're not making plans for other things. We're still doing a lot of work, obviously on Fallout 76, and we see the community, so many people going into that game and kind of rediscovering it and just so happy with where that game is at. It really does, and I mean, this has one of the best communities in all of gaming. Surprisingly, it's a very, very nice apocalypse, and we're doing a lot of Starfield work as well. So we have some really good updates that are going to get announced soon for that game. So, a lot going on here.
The Elder Scrolls VI was first revealed back in 2018 alongside Starfield. Meanwhile, Howard confirmed back in 2022 that Fallout 5 would follow after The Elder Scrolls VI was released. That still seems to be the plan.
The highly anticipated Starfield -- Bethesda's first new intellectual property in 25 years -- was finally released for Xbox and PC in September 2023. The game received mostly positive reviews from critics and fans. Bethesda has already confirmed the game's first DLC will be titled "Shattered Space," although we don't have a release date for it.
Presumably, Bethesda will simultaneously be working on The Elder Scrolls VI, which is still years away. Bethesda recently offered a broad update on the game last month, but nothing really substantial. Microsoft's FTC trial last year stated that the game is still "five plus years away," which suggests The Elder Scroll VI won't launch until 2028.
So what does this mean for Fallout 5? It's possible the game won't be released until 2030.