Bethesda boss Todd Howard has confirmed the studio is planning future Fallout games. Speaking to Variety, Howard said Bethesda is “always” thinking about what’s next in the game series, and this also applies to Fallout. These comments are not surprising given that Howard, years ago, started talking about plans for Fallout 5.
“Games take a good five-ish years. So we’re in plans for future games in this series, and nothing to talk about right now, but we’re always planning,” he said.
With the Fallout TV show winning praise from critics, and a second season coming up, many are wondering if Bethesda is going to try to capitalize with a new game release. As Howard mentioned, games take a long time to make, so Fallout 5 or anything else that might come next won’t be here soon.
For now, though, the success of the Fallout TV show helped Fallout 76’s lifetime playerbase surge beyond 20 million, with older Fallout games also seeing a bump.
“Depending on the Fallout game, you’re looking at a 4-6x increase in daily players, which is beyond anything I’ve ever seen in my 30 years of doing this,” Howard said. “Having an event that brings that many people into games that you have and who have never played your games before, that’s a big thing. New players who have never played a game or never played one of our games. It’s a really, really unique moment.”
Fallout 5 is likely still a long time off. After all, Howard previously said Bethesda will release The Elder Scrolls VI first, and then Fallout 5, and no one should expect either game to release anytime soon. Whether or not Bethesda has plans for additional Fallout titles beyond Fallout 5 remains to be seen.
It’s not just Bethesda thinking this way. PlayStation boss Hermen Hulst recently said Sony is looking to help grow its gaming audience through transmedia adaptations like HBO’s The Last of Us.
