Bethesda is rumored to be working on or looking into a new Fallout project now, to capitalize on the success of the Amazon Fallout show.
As shared by Jez Corden in the latest episode of the Xbox Two podcast, he went forward with this rumor while he and co-host Rand Al Thor19 were talking about Bethesda making a new game in time for at least another season of Fallout:
“They are currently formulating plans on how to get the next Fallout, here for us, sooner rather than later. Which I know is vague as hell, but we can’t seem (to stop) talking about, will we see Fallout this decade?”
Jez expressed his belief that Bethesda would be able to get a new Fallout out before the end of this decade. Rand, however, pointed out that video games at least take four years to make now. So, if Bethesda is only initiating talks about making that new Fallout game now, the show will be over by the time they get it out.
And that’s where Jez brings up this other idea. He says that Bethesda won’t have to do that much work, since they can use Starfield’s Creation Engine 2 instead of making one up from scratch.
But more than that, he claims that Bethesda’s discussions are about getting a different studio to make that Fallout game. In his words, “That’s what they’re talking about right now.”
After further probing from Rand, Jez explains that Bethesda is not cancelling their announced next game, The Elder Scrolls VI, to make this new Fallout game. They will be working with a different studio, and that studio’s game will not be Fallout 6, but a spinoff title instead.
As for the choice of studio, Jez brings up the obvious one; Fallout New Vegas’ developer Obsidian. In a convenient coincidence, Obsidian and Bethesda Game Studios are now both under Microsoft Gaming’s umbrella. So this scenario isn’t as unlikely as it first seems.
Still, we would have to take into account if Obsidian would themselves be interested in this. While they would see the appeal of jumping into a franchise when it’s hit the mainstream, we also have to respect that Obsidian has grown so much that we can’t think of them as just a Bethesda support studio anymore. There’s a really great chance that Avowed will turn out to be a more universally acclaimed title than Starfield was, based on previews.
We also shouldn’t rule out other possibilities that weren’t discussed here, such as making a smaller, eight hour Fallout game, or perhaps making DLC for Fallout 4 or Fallout 76 instead of a full scale title. And these ideas could still be executed by a different studio while Bethesda focuses on The Elder Scrolls VI.
