240°

Bethesda Needs to Reduce the Gaps Between New Fallout and Elder Scrolls Releases

Waiting a decade for new instalments in franchises as massive as Fallout and Elder Scrolls feels like a waste.

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gamingbolt.com
-Foxtrot21d ago

Microsoft have Obsidian but I feel it's Bethesda who just don't want to play ball as they've always said they want to do it themselves.

Once MS bought Zenimax in 2020 they should have put the Outer Worlds 2 on the back burner, allow Bethesda to finish off its own Space RPG with Starfield (despite totally different tone why have two in your first party portfolio with two developers who's gameplay is a tad similar) and got Obsidian for one of their projects to make a spiritual successor to New Vegas.

When the Elder Scrolls VI is finished Bethesda can then onto the main numbered Fallout 5 themselves.

The Outer Worlds 2 started development in 2019 so putting it on the back burner wouldn't have been the end of the world, they'd have always come back to it once Fallout was done and it would have been nicely spaced out from Starfields release once they had most likely stopped supporting it and all the expansions were released.

If they did this back in 2020 when they bought Zenimax and the game had a good, steady 4 - 5 years development, you might have seen it release in 2025.

We are literally going to be waiting until 2030 at the very earliest for Fallout 5 and all they seem bothered about is pushing Fallout 76.

RaidenBlack21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Its not just only Todd not playing ball.
Obsidian have made a name for themselves in delivering stellar RPGs, but most famous once have always been sequels/spin-offs to borrowed IPs like KOTOR 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Stick of Truth etc.
Obsidian wants to invest more in their own original IPs like Outer Worlds or Pillars of Eternity with Avowed.
Similar to what Bluepoint & inXile wants to do or Kojima is doing (i.e not involving anymore in Konami's IPs).
So yea, even if New Vegas has the most votes from 3D Fallout fans, Obsidian just wants to do their own thing, like any aspiring dev studio and MS is likely currently respecting that.
But a future Fallout game from Obsidian will surely happen. Founder Feargus Urquhart has already stated an year ago that they're eager to make a new Fallout game with Bethesda, New Vegas 2 or otherwise. Urquhart was the director of the very first 1995's Fallout game after all.
And don't forget Brian Fargo and his studio inXile, as Brian Fargo was the director of Fallout's 1988 predecessor: Wasteland

KyRo21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Obsidian should take over the FO IP. They're do far better with it than Bethesda who hasn't made a great game for almost 15 years

RaidenBlack21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

@KyRo
So, by 15 years, you mean Fallout 3 was the last great game Bethesda made?
You don't consider Skyrim a good game, which came out 13 years ago?
I'd consider Fallout 4 a pretty decent game as well. It's Story & RPG elements were a bit downgrade from New Vegas but the exploration and shooting on the other hand, were upgrades.
FO76 was disappointing and Starfield could've been better at launch I'll agree.

shinoff218321d ago

Kyro idk why you got downvoted. Obsidian has shown they can do a better fallout once. Fallout 4 while liking the game was a step down tbh

neutralgamer199220d ago (Edited 20d ago )

fox

i think the reason for that is because Todd doesn't want to look bad because he knows Obsidian will do a better job of making an actual RPG. He doesn't want to lose his shine because his last few games have been more shooters and RPG light. While we know what Obsidian are capable of. Imagine Obsidian doing FONV2 which would come out before ES6 and have better RPG features that wouldn't be good for Bethesda

If i was running Xbox i would give the FO IP to obsidian and they can make proper fallout games while bethesda have starfielf and ES6. We are waiting way too long between new games in a series. That was the main reason cory wanted God of war to be finished in 2 games instead of 3 (AAA games take 4-5 years)

We need healthy amount of AA games too. And i would mind if the fallout games being made by Obsidian are AA quality if it means we will get to play them in 2-3 years instead of 4-5

Duke1921d ago (Edited 21d ago )

I disagree. Part of these games is the support for the mod community. If they move to releasing a "next game" every 2 or 3 years, the modding support plummets and the franchises turn into just another run of the mill RPG.

Make the games good enough to withstand the test of time, to keep people coming back to them and expanding on them with mod support.

--Onilink--21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

I dont think anyone is saying they need to come out every 2 years (not to mention almost no game is released that quickly anymore)

By the time Fallout 5 comes out, it will be more than 15 years since Fallout 4 came out (same with ES6 coming out 15 years after Skyrim). Even if you want to use F76 as the metric for the most recent release, that one came out in 2018. It will be a miracle if F5 comes out before 2030

The point is that for a studio that doesnt seem to operate with multiple teams doing several projects at once, that their projects normally take 4-5 years as a minimum, and that now they even added Starfield to the rotation, it becomes a 15+ years waiting period between releases for each series, which doesnt make sense. Imagine that Nintendo only released a mainline Mario or Zelda game every 15 years…

They either need to start developing more than 1 project at a time, let someone else take a crack at one of the IPs or significantly reduce their development times

Duke1921d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Why should someone else take a crack at one of the IPs? Look at what happened to Final Fantasy as a recent example - there is pretty clear FF fatigue setting in because they are now pumping out titles in the franchise every few years. Pumping out more games faster doesn't always make a series better.

There are plenty of options to make new games, not just create more titles in the same universe at a faster pace.

-Foxtrot21d ago

"Why should someone else take a crack at one of the IPs"

He's literally just told you why

We're waiting like 15 years before a sequel comes out, it's insane

Skyrim came out in 2011, the next game is expected to come out in 2027 at the earliest so that's 16 years apart while Fallout 4 came out in 2015 and might not release until 2031, again 16 years.

We're fine with Bethesda trying new things and doing new IPs like Starfield but adding a new game to the cycle now means a bigger wait. Also Starfield didn't meet most peoples expectations, can you imagine waiting 15 years or so for a sequel and it's disappointing? It would feel even worse because you would have to wait another 15 years to see if they manage to come back from it.

They need to give it to another developer, we don't need main numbered titles but a spin off of Fallout and Elder Scrolls should be cycled in between the long gaps of the main releases.

Once again you are making out people want these games as quick as possible when all we want is a standard development time of at least 4 years or so rather than waiting 15.

theindiearmy21d ago

At this rate, I'll get two or three more Elder Scrolls games released in my lifetime and I'm not even 40. :(

mandf21d ago

Yeah I’m going to say it, who cares about the modding community when making a game? Half the time developers only tolerate modders because they fix there game for them.

shinoff218321d ago

That's not completely true. I had a good time with fallout games on my ps consoles. So they work just fine

gold_drake21d ago

"Make the games good enough to withstand the test of time, to keep people coming back to them and expanding on them with mod support."

no, we need to stop relying on mods to make a broken arse game good. there is no excuse for that whatsoever.

fans should not be responsible and relied on for fixing games.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 21d ago
Skuletor21d ago

Yeah, let's all advocate for smaller gaps between series' releases, then we'll probably get headlines about how the series have dropped in quality and they could have benefited from more time in the oven. Let them cook.

SimpleSlave21d ago

"how the series have dropped in quality and they could have benefited from more time in the oven" So every Bethesda game then? Got it.

Listen, I would agree if this was about From Software or something, but Bethesda?

🤣

C'mon now. What timeline are you from?

Skuletor21d ago

Think about it, they're already bug filled messes on their current schedule, can you imagine how much worse it would be if they rushed things?

-Foxtrot21d ago

@Skuletor

Who's saying to rush the releases? No one is saying that...

People just don't want to be waiting 15 years for a sequel, they aren't working on the game for that long, you do realise that right? The issue isn't coming down to them working on the game and us "rushing them", it's the fact they are working on other games like Starfield now meaning bigger gaps before they even get started on them.

I bet you any more Elder Scrolls VI only entered full development last year when Starfield was finished despite being announced in 2018.

Skuletor21d ago

@Foxtrot
It's like Duke19 said, people will complain about anything. If they focus on just Fallout and/or Elder Scrolls, people will complain they're just a Fallout/Elder Scrolls studio, if they branch out and focus on other IP like Starfield, now there's complaints there's too much of a gap between their other game's sequels, it's a lose/lose scenario.

Duke1921d ago

I mean you aren't wrong. People are going to complain about anything

isarai21d ago

Hows about you focus on quality, just a thought 🤷‍♂️

Sciurus_vulgaris21d ago

Bethesda [or Microsoft] would have to reallocate internal and external studios towards fallout and elder scrolls titles. Bethesda has the issue of developing 2 big IPs that are large RPGs on rotation. If you want more Fallout and Elder Scrolls, development will have to be outsourced.

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140°

Fallout 4 – Next Gen Update 2 Notes

A new update is now available for Fallout 4. This update adds the ability to manage your control over graphic fidelity or performance and addresses some further stability and visual issues.

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bethesda.net
Tacoboto18h ago

How nice of them to give us more control over graphical settings as a way to *completely* avoid taking accountability for the broken Xbox settings.

bondsmx15h ago

Well, I still crashed like 5 times last night within two hours. So there’s that.

100°

I Think It's About Time We Realize Fallout 4 Wasn't That Bad

Ahmed from eXputer: "2015's Fallout 4 received harsh criticism upon launching, but I think it was unwarranted and the game deserves more praise than it got."

helicoptergirl6d ago

It was totally that bad. I couldn't finish the campaign it was so bland and boring as I recall. Got so sick of it. 1000 stimpaks on hard. It is very rare that I play half a game and then just quit. I usually always finish it. But i was so bored with this game I just stopped and never went back and never regretted it. Just thinking about that game makes me shudder

Furesis5d ago

That's exactly what happened to me too lmao
Fallout 4 is not a fallout game period it's a bethesda game

Vits5d ago

The comparison with Skyrim is mind-boggling. Yes, Skyrim has streamlined many of the systems that Morrowind introduced. However, it did not tamper with the core of the Elder Scrolls franchise; it did not diminish the freedom and sense of exploration that made Bethesda RPGs famous. Fallout 4, on the other hand, did exactly that to the Fallout series. It eliminated what made Fallout such a beloved series to play. There are no consequences for your choices, no reason to explore, and barely any interesting set pieces in the game.

It's not terrible, but it's a painfully mediocre game in a franchise that typically doesn't produce such mediocrity. So that is why people see it as bad, the bar is just much higher.

anast5d ago

They both feel the same because they are, it's just that one has swords and magic and the other has swords and guns.

anast5d ago

I'm replaying it now. It sucks. I'm about 30 hours in and thinking about quitting again. I am so tired of the dialogue I just spam a random button because it doesn't matter. The upgrade just feels like a graphical mod, everything else is not good.

Good-Smurf5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

I couldn't play the game as-is it was insanely boring and grindy and the grind itself are not fun at all.
Mods helped me stomach the game a bit better but after a while I just stopped playing and uninstalled it because the game did nothing after the first few hours to give me any motivation to keep playing it, it just became a mindless looter shooter with obsession in settlement building and defending.
Compared to F3 and FNV, F4 was barely a mediocre game it wasn't bad but it's also very forgettable entry.

MrDead5d ago

It's not that bad after 300+ mods that fix it's issues and make the game fun... but lets not talk about mods right now as they are f****d.

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60°

Interview on Fallout 4 with the Actor for Nick Valentine, Codsworth & Mr Handy (Stephen Russell)

Interview with Stephen Russell, Actor for (Nick Valentine, Codsworth, My Handy) in Fallout 4 which is a vast open world role playing game set in the apocalyptic wastes of Boston, the Commonwealth. The career goes further with other Bethesda games from Starfield to Prey to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

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gamerheadquarters.com