Bethesda has kept many of the details about its upcoming games close to the studio’s chest, as there are only two projects confirmed to be in development, Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6. For Fallout fans, this makes it seem likely that Fallout 5 is easily around a decade away.
While this may be disappointing for fans of the franchise, there are some good reasons that a long wait for Fallout 5 could be good for the series. Not only that, but it could see a return to one of RPG gaming’s most popular collaborations.
Bethesda hasn’t revealed much about either of its upcoming titles. The Elder Scrolls 6 got it announcement teaser back in 2018, though there has been very little news about the Skyrim sequel since. In fact, there have been so few updates about basic details like the setting of The Elder Scrolls 6 that some fans have speculated that the game was announced early to try to divert attention from the announcement of Fallout 76.
While not much has been revealed about The Elder Scrolls 6, fans can reasonably expect that it will fulfill most of The Elder Scrolls formula from a first-person view to a large open world. Starfield, on the other hand, is the first new IP that the studio has tackled in over two decades.
While it has been confirmed that Starfield is a spacefaring RPG, many fundamental details remain unclear. A few leaked Starfield images show what appears to be a player character from a third-person view. This character is standing in front of a ship and has a meter that appears to indicate O2 and CO2 levels, but any inferences remain speculative.
What has been confirmed, however, is that Starfield will be releasing before The Elder Scrolls 6, despite both projects being announced in 2018. Bethesda has also claimed back in August that there would be no news about Starfield until 2021. Brighton Digital 2020 proved that wrong in a slight way, with Todd Howard mentioning that both games would make more extensive use of procedural generation to create their worlds than previous titles. However, if Bethesda is still withholding major news until next year, it’s likely that Starfield is still at least a year or two out.
This would likely put the release date of The Elder Scrolls 6 at around 5 years away, which likely means that any development of Fallout 5 probably hasn’t begun yet and likely will not begin its early stages until after the release of Starfield. However, this might not be the bad news for Fallout fans that it initially appears to be.
For a start, Bethesda shouldn’t rush the next Fallout game. It’s an interesting time in the RPG industry–huge studios like BioWare, CD Projekt Red, and Bethesda have all had controversial launches over the last few years that didn’t stand up to their previous critical success. BioWare had Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda, CD Projekt Red saw Sony pull Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation store, and Bethesda’s reputation was damaged by Fallout 76.
Fallout 5 will need time to be realized as a fully next-gen RPG, and the pressure to create a huge open-world in a short amount of time could leave that world feeling shallow and boring. Not only that, but it would increase the likelihood of developers working under crunch time. In short, time pressure could be bad for both the studio and the Fallout fans. This has also been noted for other long-awaited games. Many fans of Grand Theft Auto are hoping Rockstar takes its time with GTA 6 after Cyberpunk’s difficult launch to avoid some of the same problems.
A longer wait for Fallout 5 could deliver on another note. Ever since Microsoft began its acquisition of Zenimax Media Inc, Bethesda’s parent company, the Xbox manufacturer has been in the process of bringing Bethesda and Obsidian Entertainment under one roof. This could make another Fallout game developed by Obsidian possible.
Obsidian developed Fallout: New Vegas, with Bethesda publishing it. The game was a success, but relations between the studios were left strained when New Vegas got an 84 on Metacritic which denied the studio a bonus it would only have received if it the game was rated 85. However, with both owned by Microsoft, a sequel or spiritual successor to New Vegas could be possible once again. If nothing else, Bethesda might be put in a position where allowing another Obsidian-developed Fallout game could keep interest in the franchise alive as Bethesda works on its other projects.
As uncertainly sweeps the RPG industry, a likely success like a Fallout: New Vegas sequel could also be a safe financial bet for both companies. Other RPG studios have also been returning to their core IPs, with BioWare announcing both a new Mass Effect game and the remastered Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
Fallout 5 may be a long way off, but that’s likely the best thing for fans of the game and the studio alike. Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 could provide significant opportunity for experimentation that could benefit Fallout 5, while also giving the developer time to really bring the world to life instead of just hitting the core tenets of the Fallout formula. The game’s future may rely on the reception of Starfield and the next Elder Scrolls – for now, the prospects of the Fallout franchise and Bethesda itself remain unclear as gaming enters the next generation.
Fallout 5 has not been announced.
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