Bethesda has officially confirmed Fallout 5, remasters of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, and a brand-new Fallout project from Obsidian Entertainment as part of a huge new roadmap for the series.
Yes, all at once.
The announcements came in a new statement from Bethesda Game Studios, published less than two weeks after Xbox began its enormous reset. Around 3,200 jobs are expected to be lost over the course of the restructure, including dozens at Bethesda, as Xbox shifts its attention toward its biggest and most reliable franchises. Fallout is very clearly going to be one of them.
Let’s start with the biggest surprise, even if it isn’t technically a surprise anymore: Obsidian is officially returning to Fallout.
I reported on the project last week after Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier revealed that Obsidian had lost roughly a quarter of its staff and was pivoting toward a new Fallout game. Bethesda has now confirmed the collaboration, saying it is teaming up once again with its “longtime friends” at Obsidian.
“We could not be more excited to work with Obsidian again,” Todd Howard told Bloomberg, adding only that the “timing is right” for the two studios to reunite.
Howard refused to say whether the project will use Bethesda’s Creation Engine, how it originated, or which studio will take the lead in production. He did stress that the Fallout franchise remains managed by Bethesda and its franchise teams, suggesting Obsidian will not simply be handed the keys to the wasteland and left to do whatever it wants.
And no, Bethesda has not called it Fallout: New Vegas 2. It could be a sequel, a spin-off or something entirely different. All we know for certain is that Obsidian is making a new Fallout project with Bethesda, 16 years after the release of New Vegas.
Interestingly, Fallout creator Tim Cain also returned to Obsidian as a full-time employee late last year. Cain said at the time that nobody would correctly guess what he was working on. But, of course, that was before everything went crazy.
Bethesda has also finally confirmed that remasters of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are in development. Rumours of a Fallout 3 remaster have been floating around for years, while fans have been begging for New Vegas to receive some modern-day love for even longer.
However, Bethesda announced no release dates, platforms or other details for either game. It specifically described them as remasters rather than remakes, but we don’t yet know how extensive the work will be or which studios are handling it.
As for Fallout 5, it is real and currently only in preproduction. Bethesda describes it as the franchise’s “long-range destination,” which is a polite way of saying everyone should settle in for a wait.
The Elder Scrolls VI remains Bethesda’s primary development focus, with the majority of the studio currently working on it. Both games are being built using Creation Engine 3, a new shared technology platform Bethesda has been developing since Starfield launched. According to the company, the engine will allow its teams to support multiple projects simultaneously and includes new tools, rendering technology and gameplay systems.
That should let some work on Fallout 5 happen alongside The Elder Scrolls VI, but the clear message is that the next mainline Fallout is still a long way away. Obsidian’s project and the two remasters will presumably help fill that enormous radioactive hole in the schedule, although none of those games has a release window either.
It’s honestly kind of mind-boggling that Microsoft has allowed Fallout to languish for so long, especially now that the TV show has become a massive hit. The fact that Fallout 5 is only in pre-production feels entirely wrong, to me.
There is more immediate Fallout content coming. Fallout 76 will receive a major expansion next year called Raven Rock, described as a prequel story to Fallout 3. Bethesda says the online RPG is still home to millions of players and has now received nearly 70 free updates.
Fallout 4, meanwhile, has passed 35 million copies sold following its tenth anniversary. Fallout Shelter has now attracted more than 250 million players and will receive additional Seasons, while Amazon Studios and Kilter Films are also developing an unscripted Fallout Shelter television project. Quite what an unscripted Fallout Shelter show looks like is anyone’s guess. Personally, I hope it involves putting strangers in an underground bunker and seeing how long it takes before somebody gets assigned to the wrong room and starts a small civil war.
Production on the third season of Amazon’s main Fallout television series is already underway, following ten Emmy nominations for Season 2. Bethesda is also skipping its traditional Fallout Day broadcast this year, but says it is planning a live event in Washington, D.C. for the franchise’s 30th anniversary in 2027.
The timing of this roadmap is impossible to ignore. Xbox has just cut deeply across its studios and made it clear that its future will be built around fewer, much larger franchises. In his Bloomberg interview, Howard called the layoffs “really tough,” but said Bethesda is changing to focus on the franchises and work it needs to deliver.
This, then, is what that new strategy looks like for Fallout: two remasters, two new games, another Fallout 76 expansion, ongoing mobile support and multiple television projects. On paper, it is the busiest and most promising Fallout pipeline Bethesda has had in years.
The only small problem is that almost none of it has a date. Fallout fans finally have a packed roadmap; now they just have to survive the wait.
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