Bethesda confirm FALLOUT remasters and new games from themselves and Obsidian Entertainment

Bethesda have issued a major update on their game projects and franchises, confirming that they are deep in development on Elder Scrolls VI, in pre-production on Fallout 5 and are partnering with Obsidian Entertainment on a new Fallout game. They also confirm that remasters for both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are in development.

There's quite a lot packed into the update. They confirm that Fallout 4 (2015) has surpassed 35 million sales since a boost from the popularity of the TV series. Online game Fallout 76 (2018) continues to see new expansions, and next year's big expansion, Raven Rock, will act as a prequel to Fallout 3 (2008).

That makes more sense as Bethesda have confirmed that Fallout 3 Remastered is now in development, and presumably will launch in 2027. That matches the leaked timescale some time ago that predicted a two-year gap between Oblivion Remastered (2025) and Fallout 3 Remastered. More intriguingly, they confirm that Fallout: New Vegas Remastered is also in development. This makes sense as FO3 and New Vegas share a lot of assets, so updating the former means you've also done a lot of work for the latter already.

Bethesda are also planning a special event for the 30th Anniversary of the original Fallout on October 10th next year, with a special event in Washington DC (it might be smart money to circle that potential date for Fallout 3 Remastered's release, as FO3 is set in DC).

Bethesda confirmed last week's rumour that a new Fallout game is in development at Obsidian, and also went further by confirming that this game will be a new spin-off title like New Vegas, not Fallout 5 (though this is somewhat a distinction without much of a difference). Fallout 5 itself is in pre-production at Bethesda themselves, but they will not be able to start full production until work on The Elder Scrolls VI is completed. They confirm that ES6 remains their current priority and is currently looking in a good shape, but no release date is projected (previous leaks suggest the game won't launch until 2028-29 at the earliest). They also confirm that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has now surpassed 65 million sales and Starfield has passed 17 million in sales.

This news confirms Microsoft's decision to have its studios pivot to their most famous and popular franchises and shorten development timelines (and thus costs). By the time Elder Scrolls VI launches, it will be around eighteen years since Skyrim was released, a huge amount of time to expect fans to wait between games.

It will be interesting to see when we start getting more information on these developments, such as confirmation of ES6's subtitle and setting.