“I wouldn’t be surprised if Bethesda gave Fallout 5 to a different production studio,” he said. “I think that they’re doing more and more of that already, they’re bigger and bigger than ever. I feel like The Elder Scrolls 6, the expectations are already beyond the screen here, and they already have their hands full with that.”

Former senior designer on Bethesda’s Fallout games, Bruce Nesmith, agreed with Lobe, noting that Bethesda would benefit quite a bit if it were to ship a brand new entry in the franchise while Amazon’s live-action adaptation is still running.

“I wasn’t necessarily with you before, but when you say that, I totally agree,” he said. “Having the game come out while the show is either still running, or still very fresh, would be a huge advantage.”

Giant Bomb founder and renowned games journalist Jeff Gerstmann had noted on his own podcast earlier this month that Bethesda is more likely to keep new entries in its main franchises completely in-house. This means that the company is also likelier to simply focus on growing its development teams rather than contracting an external studio.

“I think Todd Howard and the team probably have a pretty firm grasp of what they want to do with those specific franchises, and instead of assigning that stuff to another team, it would be more likely for them to staff up at Bethesda Game Studios to make sure that they have what they need to get those games done,” he said. Interestingly, he also noted that there was another Fallout game being developed by a Microsoft-owned studio. However, this project has ultimately been cancelled.

“There was a Fallout thing in development at another Microsoft-owned studio that I think is no longer going to see the light of day,” he said. “But yeah, they will probably not do the remakes. I think those have been outsourced to others, like the Fallout 3 thing, which I think has been outsourced to an external studio. But, you know, new games will probably come from that brain trust, and I think that they probably will continue to have a pretty firm grasp on that.”

Bethesda farming out remasters of its older games to other studios shouldn’t come as any surprise, since the company worked with Virtuos for the development of last year’s The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered. Just last month, creative director Todd Howard also noted that, while he has “softened on the whole remaster thing,” he continues to be “anti-remake.”

“I respect the other ones out there, but I really think the age of a game is part of what it is and its personality and what it represented when it came out,” he said.

“Now, the majority of our internal team is on Elder Scrolls 6. We are doing other things with Fallout that we haven’t announced. And, you know, there’ll come a time for that. I get the sort of anxiety from fans, like, ‘What else? Feed me!’ But, look, we’re working on stuff. And, you know, we do like to wait. And so, I think there will be a moment to talk about [the future of Fallout], and we want to make those special moments for our fans.”

The statement seemingly confirms rumors that Fallout 5 was on the cards all along, and that Bethesda seems to be biding its time to make an announcement that’s probably going to delight fans who are eagerly waiting to hear more news about the game. However, that day of bliss could be quite a while away with most of the studio’s internal team focused on bringing The Elder Scrolls 6 to life.

With no release date currently confirmed for that one, it looks like it’s going to be quite a long wait before Fallout 5 sees the light of day. Howard did allude to other unannounced projects related to the franchise, however, and quest designer Emil Pagliarulo acknowledged the long gap between mainline releases while defending it with the assertion that it was important to create a game that “gives fans what they love”.

One can only hope that Bethesda is cooking and that the wait will be worth it when we finally hear more about the long-awaited sequel.

“I have no idea where Fallout 5 will be set, but it’ll be in America. I would be shocked if it wasn’t,” he told PressBoxPR in a new interview. Assuming it was a possibility, however, he said Tokyo was a “great” option.

“I would probably have to go to Asia. I think Tokyo would be great. They could lean into Kaiju, and that would feel a very natural fit for the series. You could do a lot of very cool stuff out there.”

Fallout as a media sensation is in a great spot. Despite lower viewership, Season 2 of Amazon’s Fallout TV show is performing well, with a third season already greenlit. The video games are a different matter. Fallout 4’s impressions may have improved since its 2015 launch, but it’s still viewed less than positively by long-time fans, especially when every major new update seems to break things.

To that end, what would Nesmith suggest for Bethesda to shake things up for Fallout 5 (and even The Elder Scrolls 6)? “I would probably look at two things. I would probably look at having the world be more dynamic. Bethesda games in the last decade have become less dynamic in order to meet the needs of what the games needed and audience expectations, but to be able to have the world be more fluid, I think that would be very cool.

“I also think, to look at Baldur’s Gate 3 and draw lessons from that smash hit, that part of what made it so popular is that it felt like all choices were meaningful because you made a choice and it made a big difference in your play. Bethesda games have maybe pulled back from doing that a little bit.

“The focus is on putting your toys away, but in these games, you do something in the thieves guild quest line that completely changes what becomes of the mages guild, for example. The world and the game is changed because of your choices. Have it make a real impact.

“If I were in a position of being able to make the decisions, that’s something that I would look to be doing because I think the gaming community has spoken and said they want games like Baldur’s Gate 3 where their actions feel like they have impact in a broader sense.”

Nothing is known about Fallout 5 at this point, besides rumors that it’s in the works at Bethesda. The only official detail is from Bethesda’s Todd Howard, who said it would “will exist in a world where the stories and events of the show happened or are happening.” Fallout 76 creative director Jon Rush also denied that the multiplayer title was holding back the sequel in any way.

As for what fans can expect in the near future, remasters of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are reportedly on the agenda. They likely won’t be revealed anytime soon, though, so the wait continues.

The Creation Engine first debuted as the game engine powering the incredibly-popular The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Later, the same engine was also used to develop Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. The development of Starfield saw updates to the engine, with it being dubbed Creation Engine 2.

“I’m really worried that they’re gonna keep going with the Creation Engine,” said Carter when asked about what new features could show up in Fallout 5. “I understand that it is proprietary. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of pluses to it. I’m not just someone that’s going to sit there and lie and say it’s a terrible engine. It could be better, yes, but it’s not a bad engine but I do think it started to show its age. It needs to be overhauled somewhat.”

The idea fundamentally comes down to the fact that it might be difficult for Bethesda to add in new features to the engine that support new kinds of gameplay. For example, drivable vehicles would be a major addition that would require quite a bit of development on the Creation Engine.

“If they can overhaul it, then there’s no reason why they couldn’t push its limits and start adding things like drivable cars, maybe even metro systems like what we built in Fallout: London,” Carter continued. “I mean, if we found a way, I’m sure they could bring some of this stuff back into Fallout 5.”

Going into further detail about what kinds of technical issues could be fixed if Bethesda were to move over to a more modern game engine, Carter responded by saying “load screens and optimization, without a doubt,” before going into the painstaking work that the Fallout: London team did in its attempts to reduce load screens.

“That was our biggest complaint, rightly so from the public, that our game wasn’t optimized, and that’s because it was far too late in development to be able to change it, and it was because we as gamers did not want load screens,” he explained. “So we built things like the East Minster, which is in the Trafalgar Square area and is notoriously one of the more unstable areas in the mod, and we were just trying to literally slap down walls on anything to optimize it by the end.”

“That’s just because we didn’t want to have load screens. It would have really taken away from the vibe and we paid the price for it because the engine wasn’t suitable for what we wanted to achieve. If they have to upgrade it, that’s what they need to solve: get rid of the load screens and allow better optimization.”

In the same interview, Carter has also expressed his thoughts on the current state of the Fallout franchise, and how it might be better off if Bethesda were to sell the IP to a new developer.

When asked about this “no-win” situation for the studio, Purkeypile said: “Yes, and that definitely factored into me leaving because Skyrim being one of the top 10 games of all-time, how do you beat that?” He went on to acknowledge that Bethesda has the potential to beat expectations with its future games. However, he did note that just simply meeting expectations wouldn’t be enough for the developer.

“If they do, great! And I hope it’s a great game, but even if it’s just as good as Skyrim was, you’ll still get so many people throwing out hateful comments. I’m sure there will be more death threats again. All of that stuff. It’s really unfortunate that that’s the way things have gone,” he said.

Further discussing The Elder Scrolls 6, Purkeypile was also asked his thoughts on where the next entry of the open-world RPG franchise should take place among its fictional world of Tamriel. He said that we would likely end up seeing an entirely new location, but that the scope of the game would likely revolve around a singular region of Tamriel. Comparing it to the much larger scale of sci-fi RPG Starfield, he noted that games can often benefit from being a bit more constrained.

“I probably shouldn’t guess on that, other than not one of the regions that they’ve already done recently. Outside of Daggerfall. That doesn’t count,” he said. “My hope would be that they would just pick one region of Tamriel because that’s part of why I was not super into Starfield. It was the scope above all else.”

“I think there is something to be said for going a bit more constrained. I always thought that was a weird goal anyway. No one before was saying I wish there were more of a Bethesda game! It’s like, dude, people are playing that like a decade plus later. Do you really need it to be bigger? You can always dig deeper and deeper within that space because it’s already so big.”

In the same interview, Purkeypile also revealed that The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced incredibly early just to make sure that fans of the studio weren’t angry at it for not having done anything with the franchise since Skyrim.

“My assumption was always that we were announcing Starfield, and it had been so long already since Skyrim that we needed to make sure people were not just pissed at us. It’s a very expensive way to do that, though. Those trailers are not cheap,” said Purkeypile when asked about The Elder Scrolls 6‘s announcement.

Along with reporting that the teaser site is not leading to a shadow drop for a new Fallout game (much less a remaster), he revealed that the remaster is coming “eventually.” Interestingly, Corden added, “as well as Fallout: New Vegas on top,” which wouldn’t be surprising given the focus of Fallout Season 2.

And while it’s unknown if one of them could be a new Fallout, there are apparently four new projects in the works at Obsidian Entertainment, “some big, some small.” He also reiterated that Fallout 5 has allegedly been greenlit, and while a teaser at an upcoming showcase isn’t out of the question, it’s got a long way to go.

Of course, this is all leading up to the next Xbox Developer_Direct, scheduled for later this month. Microsoft didn’t confirm what would be shown, simply noting that Playground Games would be present. However, Corden says it’s “highly likely” that Fable and Forza Horizon 6, alongside Gears of War: E-Day and Halo: Campaign Evolved (allegedly referred to internally as the “four horsemen) could appear.

Speaking to BBC’s Newsbeat, he said, “In short, yes. Fallout 5 will exist in a world where the stories and events of the show happened or are happening. We are taking that into account.”

Whether this means its characters will show up or not is a completely different story. Regardless, if you’ve enjoyed the show, Howard considers it a worthwhile way to experience the series, calling viewers “equal fans” of its world.

“There are still so many people who won’t play a game. I think that’s getting better, but there are still people who are intimidated. They still get to experience Fallout, and I think that’s really important because they’re now equal fans of the world.”

Fallout 5 hasn’t been officially revealed by Bethesda, though rumors claim it’s in the works. Howard said the team is working on a “whole bunch of stuff” for the series and that may include the long-rumored Fallout 3 remaster. Of course, when it will be released, much less revealed, remains to be seen.

The situation is further exacerbated by a new multi-platform approach to Xbox titles, with the ROG Xbox Ally’s announcement fuelling speculation that the legendary console as we know it might fade away into the sunset in the coming years. Despite Microsoft joining hands with AMD, and the confirmation of at least one more generation of Xbox as a result, things may not be as great as Microsoft would hope as far as its Xbox gaming division is concerned.

It’s a bleak future that could disappoint fans of the console’s many first party titles, which include legends like Halo, Gears of War, The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout. However, Fallout fans might not be feeling the pinch as much as others in this situation, if recent reports about new additions to the franchise are any indication.

The Xbox’s New Road

With an emphasis on the ‘Xbox Anywhere’ tagline, Microsoft’s approach to its gaming division’s approach to exclusive first-party titles seems to be evolving in line with its CEO Phil Spencer’s assertion that the company remains open to its first-party titles being at the frontline of its multi-platform approach back in 2024.

That ties in well with the launch of the ROG XBox Ally, as it is an AMD-powered system that runs Windows with an Xbox UI overlay, and can, in theory, download games from other storefronts like Steam and Epic Games. News of its multi-year collaboration with AMD to create chips for its gaming devices suggests that while the Xbox will continue to be present in modern gaming, it may not rely on console-exclusive titles to retain its position.

Coupled with Microsoft’s insistence on the viability of Game Pass, and the manner in which the subscription service continues to be a safe haven for new developers, the company’s multi-platform approach to gaming might be a new standard for Xbox as the years go on. It could spell the evolution of what used to be a console that was the only option to play a few excellent titles to a platform that gives its players a lot of choices as to how they play their games, and with whom they play them.

And yet, despite all of this uncertainty about what the future holds for the Xbox, it seems that Bethesda Game Studios is going full steam ahead with upcoming additions to the Fallout franchise in what is sure to be great news for its fans. 

A Gift That Keeps on Giving

Appearing on the Friends per Second podcast, VGC staff writer Jordan Middler teased multiple Fallout related projects in development over at Bethesda, including one that he believed would have many long-term fans of the franchise very delighted indeed.

The timing of these projects is quite opportune, considering how the franchise received a lot of positive attention from Amazon Prime’s excellent live-action adaptation, bringing it to the screens of audiences who may not have played the games as a showcase of its quirky yet insightful examinations of complex themes like corporate greed and human empathy in a world in which survival comes at a heavy price.

There is speculation, and perhaps hope among the franchise’s players, that one of these projects is a remaster of Fallout 3, a game that made its debut back in 2008 on the Xbox 360, PS3, and Windows. Its popularity is now the stuff of legends, and a remaster of the game has long been the focus of rumors and leaks, Middler’s latest statement notwithstanding.

For Bethesda, such a remaster would make sense, allowing a new generation of players to enjoy one of its most popular titles in the same way that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered brought another one of its classics back into the fold on current-gen systems.

The studio could even consider a complete package that brings Fallout 3 and New Vegas together into a single title with updated visuals and quality of life changes that make the most of the raw power that current-gen systems are capable of, making it an experience that brings nostalgia and improvements in equal measures.

Although all of this is speculation at this point in time, Fallout players would eagerly lap up any new additions to the franchise considering that it’s been nearly a decade since Fallout 4 hit the shelves. However, reports suggesting that there could be good news on that front could very well have fans of the franchise leaping for joy.

When One Door Closes, Another Opens

Microsoft’s decision to shut down Zenimax Online’s MMO codenamed Blackbird might have been bad news for players looking forward to the next IP from the makers of Elder Scrolls Online. It’s always saddening to see ambitious projects vanish into the ether and the consequent news of layoffs that follow such cancellations, after all.

However, all of the resources that were being directed towards Blackbird may now be diverted to development of Fallout 5, with Windows Central executive editor Jez Corden’s appearance on the Xbox Two Podcast more or less confirming that the project has been greenlit over at Xbox. However, Bethesda’s current projects that include The Elder Scrolls VI and more DLC for Starfield may not allow the studio to return to the helm of this sequel.

While that may be off-putting to more than a few fans of the franchise, it could also mean that other talented studios get a shot at recreating the magic that Fallout games are known for, perhaps even adding touches of their own that could elevate the franchise to new heights. It could also be a project that allows Microsoft to avoid more layoffs and closures if it chooses another studio to take on a project that carries a lot of potential.

Another factor that could spell good news is the announcement of a third season of Prime’s TV show, ahead of the December 2025 premiere of Fallout’s second season which is all set to continue the exciting story it established in the first season, bringing faces old and new to a season that is primed to be as exciting as the first one.

Depending on the success of the show’s next couple of outings, a new Fallout game could benefit greatly from establishing continuity between the show and the game, making for an experience that bridges the gap between the show’s interpretation of past titles with a game that draws from it directly. Of course, the studio helming the new game could choose to go in a different direction if the story they wish to tell does not coincide with the show’s narrative.

While all of this is just speculation based on reports with no official confirmation at the time of writing this article, Fallout’s fans might be wary of getting their hopes up for either a remaster of Fallout 3 or a new addition to the franchise. However, it does make sense for Xbox to take either one or both of these projects forward, making Fallout a solid pillar to support a new strategy for its games.

It’s an opportunity that Microsoft would be remiss to pass up considering how the gaming world has sorely missed one of its most stellar takes on a post-apocalyptic world. Whatever the future holds for Xbox, betting on one of its best performers is sure to be a decision that could galvanize its plans for the future in both the short and long term. 

For now, as fans of Fallout ourselves, it’s time to wait patiently with our fingers crossed and hope all of the rumors are true.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

According to Corden, the development of Fallout 5 was pushed for internally after the in-development MMORPG at ZeniMax Online Studios, codenamed Blackbird, was cancelled. The decision was made by Microsoft to go with a new Fallout game since the already-established IP is more likely to give the company a “surefire win” when compared to the unknowns that come with releasing a game in a brand-new IP.

“From what I heard, it was a case of ‘Do we want to sink a ton of money into getting this [project Blackbird] to a point where it can compete with the established players in the market, or do we want to allocate that investment towards making Fallout 5?'” Corden said on the podcast.

However, Corden also noted that he didn’t have enough details about the development of various games at Bethesda to comment further about it.

Corden’s report comes shortly after another one from earlier this month indicated that one of the projects under development at Bethesda was also a remake of Fallout 3. The report, courtesy of VGC’s Jordan Middler, indicated that one of the games Bethesda is currently working on is the “one you’re all wanting”. He also said that the project was still quite a while away from being released.

“There are multiple Fallout projects in development, including, as far as I’m aware, that one you’re all wanting,” said Middler. “But it’s not far enough along to say anything that is like, ‘You’re going to be playing this game anytime soon’.’”

ZeniMax Online Studios’ project Blackbird was reportedly cancelled earlier this month as part of Microsoft’s sweeping set of lay-offs and project cancellations. The game was described as being a new sci-fi IP that would have been completely separate from the other ZeniMax Online Studios title, The Elder Scrolls Online.

Blackbird was reportedly under development since 2018, with the game taking quite a bit of time to make because the studio was working on an entirely new game engine to power the title. When it was ultimately cancelled, Blackbird was still in pre-production, and was expected to go into full production “soon” once it got approval from Xbox.

Another report indicated that Microsoft Gaming’s leadership – namely CEO Phil Spencer – was quite happy with the early prototypes of Blackbird. According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schrier, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty had to physically pull the controller away from Spencer because he was enjoying the game too much.

Currently, no details about the status of unreleased projects at Bethesda have been confirmed by the company or Microsoft.

How successful exactly? GOG, the platform that it was released on, recently issued a press release in which it announced that Fallout London had become the fastest redeemed platform in the platform’s history, having been redeemed more than 500,000 times in its first 24 hours. Of course, Fallout London is an entirely free download, but that’s an impressive number nonetheless- especially for a fan-made conversion mod.

And as I touched on earlier, there’s been plenty of other evidence over the course of the last few months alone that has made it abundantly clear that there’s extreme demand for a new Fallout game, with the aforementioned Amazon show having sparked drastically boosted sales and engagement numbers for pretty much any game bearing the Fallout name that people could get their hands on. Fallout is obviously a huge franchise, so there’s never been any doubt that there’s never going to be any shortage of demand for a new entry- but if the last few months have made anything clear beyond a shadow of doubt, it’s that Bethesda has made fans wait for a Fallout game far, far longer than it should have.

It’s no secret that modern AAA development is eye-wateringly time consuming, while also requiring an equally heavy financial investment, so Bethesda Game Studios is by no means the only developer out there that has seen the frequency of its output being cut down drastically over the course of the last decade or so. But while it makes less than zero sense to blame studios for taking the necessary time to make massive, big budget games, one also can’t help but wonder whether, knowing what it obviously would have known about the heavy requirements of modern development, Bethesda could have done a better job of planning for the future of one of its biggest properties.

Under ordinary circumstances, if someone were to tell you that it’s been close to a decade since the last mainline release in a franchise, one of your very first assumptions would probably be that its last major release hadn’t been successful enough to warrant at least an immediate follow up (or even one in the distant future). But this if Fallout we’re talking about. The last time we got a mainline single player game in the series was all the way back in 2015 with Fallout 4, which, sure, may have proven divisive for a good portion of the fanbase- but at the end of the day, it will still a critically well received game, and an even bigger commercial success. And yet here we are, nearly a decade later, still waiting patiently for Fallout 5.

But wait, we hear you say- what about Fallout 76? And yes, that’s certainly a caveat that sort of explains (and even excuses, for many of its fans) the prolonged absence of the franchise’s mainline series. The multiplayer RPG launched in 2018, and though it’s technically not the flagship mainline entry that many have been desperately waiting for, it is a modern Fallout game that players can dive into if more of the series is what they want. And though things obviously did not start out great for the game, with time, Bethesda has consistently improved and added to Fallout 76, turning it into a legitimately fun experience. But let’s face it- it ain’t Fallout 5. Is it a decent alternative to whet our appetites while we wait for the main meal? In its current state, it absolutely is. But it’s not a replacement, not by a stretch.

What makes it worse is the fact that we have no damn idea how long we’ll be waiting for that main course, other than it’s going to be years and years and years. Bethesda Game Studios’ last major project, Starfield, is not even a year old yet, and for at least the foreseeable future, the developer is going to be focused on delivering post-launch content and support for the space-faring RPG. After that, next up for BGS is The Elder Scrolls 6, another long awaited sequel that fans have been waiting for for far longer than they ideally should have been, and presumably, its launch (however far away that is) will be followed by post-launch support over at least 2-3 years as well. And then we’re going to get Fallout 5- all of which is to say that it’s likely we won’t be getting the next mainline game in the series for maybe another decade, if not even more.

So what’s the solution to this very frustrating problem? Because a solution is obviously needed at this point. Yes, Microsoft and Bethesda are both benefiting massively from the increased sales that the entire Fallout franchise is enjoying in 2024, but by not having a new release to line up with this resurgence in popularity for the franchise, you could also argue that they’ve left money on the table. And with Fallout 5 not releasing anytime soon, maybe the people in charge of the franchise need to look at alternative options.

More than a few times, fans of the series have floated the idea of a Fallout spinoff being developed by a different studio, similar to what Obsidian Entertainment did with Fallout: New Vegas back in the day, while Bethesda could also always choose to fill the gaps in the series’ release schedule with remakes or remasters of older titles in the franchise. The latter in particular is something that leaks have suggested as well, with mentions of a remaster of Fallout 3 having been spotted in leaked Microsoft documents during the company’s FTC trial last year.

Frankly, any of those outcomes would be preferable to the situation we’re in right now, where our only hope for more, new Fallout content in the near (or even distant) future is either expansions for Fallout 76 or a group of fans coming together to release a total conversion mod. That’s not taking away anything from Fallout London, of course, which, as we mentioned in our review, is a full-featured experience with an engaging story, an excellent map that’s brimming with atmosphere, and genuinely well-realized quests and characters. In a world where Bethesda and Microsoft can’t seem to figure out how to reprioritize Fallout, Team FOLON’s expansion-sized mod has done a wonderful job of giving us a captivating taste of the series’ beloved post-apocalyptic offerings.

Which brings us back to where we started- Fallout London releasing and being as good as it is has made the absence of a new, official Fallout game more starkly apparent (not that that wasn’t already the case). We can only hope that its popularity will compel Microsoft and Bethesda to fast-track their efforts to find a way release Fallout content with greater frequency.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.