New Fallout game will appear ‘sooner rather than later’ claims source

Microsoft is understandably keen to get a new Fallout game released this decade but its options as to what it can do are limited.

Although video game movies and TV shows have finally turned a corner, in terms of critical and commercial success, there’s still next to no synergy between them and the games themselves.

Fallout 4 may be breaking sales records right now but as the most recent mainline entry it’s nine years old. Although that’s nothing compared to Castlevania on Netflix not having had a new entry for over a decade and being essentially a dead franchise.

These issues are commonplace but the problem for the Fallout franchise is that Fallout 5 isn’t expected to be out this decade. And yet, according to sources, Microsoft wants a new game out before that.

Given the huge success of Amazon’s Fallout TV show it’s no surprise to hear that Microsoft is not happy at the idea of Fallout 5 taking so long. At the moment though, it’s difficult to see what they can do, since Bethesda’s priority is The Elder Scrolls 6 and that’s not expected until around 2028 – so Fallout 5 would presumably be several years after that.

By that time the Fallout show is no longer going to be the hot property it currently is, but the studio most qualified to make a spin-off – Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment, which Microsoft also owns – is currently busy with both Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2.

According to Windows Central’s Jez Corden, speaking on the Xbox Two podcast, Microsoft is, ‘currently formulating plans on how to get the next Fallout here for us sooner rather than later.’

In the past, Corden has proven to have reliable sources at Microsoft, but it’s unclear if he knows exactly what Microsoft is planning, or indeed whether Microsoft has decided.

‘We constantly talk about will we even see Fallout this decade,’ said Corden. ‘And the answer is I think we will.’

One of the problems is that Bethesda seems jealous of the popularity of New Vegas and has not let anyone else make a Fallout game since, apparently shooting down several subsequent suggestions from Obsidian.

Despite constant rumours, and fan demand, for a New Vegas remaster, there’s also been no sign of it happening, despite it being an obvious stopgap between releases, and a useful update given the game’s bugs.

Whether Microsoft would force Bethesda to accept another developer being involved is unclear, but since Fallout 5 itself would presumably still be made by Bethesda it doesn’t seem too unreasonable a demand.

The real problem is that even if they commissioned a game tomorrow it would still take several years to make, even if it was aimed at being a smaller scale game or perhaps not a role-player.

Microsoft could look to find someone that is halfway through an unrelated game, that could be turned into a Fallout title, but that may not save all that much time.

Although the Amazon show’s level of success was impossible to predict the bigger problem is that it’s highlighted, once again, just how long it takes to make a modern video game, and all the many problems that brings with it.