Bethesda Game Studios’ Studio Design Director has commented on Fallout 5‘s release date, and how it is likely to be years away. Recently, the popularity of the Fallout series has seen a resurgence due to newer audiences discovering the franchise through Amazon Prime’s hugely successful live-action adaptation, and pre-established fans of the series returning to their favorite titles for another playthrough.
When asked about the potential release date of Fallout 5 on X and what part of making a Bethesda Game Studios title takes up the majority of a development cycle, Emil Pagliarulo pointed out that development times vary for a “variety of reasons” across projects. He stated that with Starfield – which was in development for the best part of a decade – the team spent a lot of time updating and developing tech for the game, but also “paused for a bit” to assist with Fallout 76.
Ultimately, the main reason Pagliarulo cites is that essentially, there are only so many resources, and when it comes down to the number of people, as talented as they may be, they “need time to make great stuff” and can’t do everything at once.
Although many Fallout fans are keen for more content, there hasn’t been a reveal trailer or announcement for Fallout 5 yet, Todd Howard did state in an interview with IGN in 2022 that while the studio had an idea and a one-pager for the post-apocalyptic sequel, there wasn’t much beyond that. However, there are other highly anticipated Bethesda titles in the works in the meantime.
This year should see the release of Starfield‘s Shattered Space DLC, which Bethesda confirmed prior to the main game’s launch. Little is known about what the expansion other than that it would contain “new story content, new locations, new gear, and much more”, and will be released sometime in 2024. The other high-profile Bethesda title in the works is The Elder Scrolls 6. The title was announced in 2018 at E3 with a teaser trailer, and in that same interview with IGN, Howard confirmed that it was in pre-production, so hopefully, with it being nearly 2 years on at the time of writing, the game should be on its way.
While this will likely disappoint those who were keen for more content from the wasteland after Fallout‘s success on streaming, it does make perfect sense. Bethesda Game Studios’ RPGs are known for their scale and branching narratives, which would understandably take time to develop, so with a major title like The Elder Scrolls 6 in development, it will be taking up a large amount of time and resources.
Sources: Emil Pagliarulo/X, IGN