It's been a while since the Fallout franchise hit headlines in a big way. 2010 was the last time an entry into the series was published, which came as Fallout: New Vegas. Since then, we've mostly heard of different downloadable content packages and expansions to Fallout 3 and New Vegas. While these announcements are nice, they aren't near as exciting as rumors of a new entry into the series, something we've finally been graced with.
It has been indirectly announced that Fallout 4 is an entity and that cooperative play might be making its way into the game. On May 31, just a couple short days ago, moderators on the official Bethesda forums were seen asking fans what they would like to see in the series' next installment; over five pages of responses were the result.
This is the first instance of Bethesda acknowleding that there may be another Fallout game, though many gamers were well aware that one was probably in development. The information which reveals that cooperative play might be making its way into the franchise was inferred from this statement, made by the same moderators asking for suggestions on the series' next installment:
Discuss items you'd like to see in a future game, gameplay tweaks, quest ideas, things you hope are not in the next game and so on. If you want to discuss major issues, use a separate topic – such as the discussion about adding multi-player or co-op play.
It appears that rumors claiming Fallout 4 will be officially announced at E3 2013 may not be far off. With the next-generation of consoles upon us and rumors like this floating around, this year's expo should prove to be an interesting one.