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.

[-Foxtrot]

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.

[RaidenBlack]

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

[KyRo]

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

[RaidenBlack]

@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.

[shinoff2183]

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

[neutralgamer1992]

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

[Duke19]

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--]

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

[Duke19]

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.

[-Foxtrot]

"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.

[theindiearmy]

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

[mandf]

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.

[shinoff2183]

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

[gold_drake]

"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.

[Skuletor]

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.

[SimpleSlave]

"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?

[Skuletor]

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?

[-Foxtrot]

@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.

[Skuletor]

@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.

[Duke19]

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

[isarai]

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

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

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.

[Crows90]

Nope.
They need fix their disorganization and focus on making games as dedicated as they were with morrowind. ALL IN instead these crappy executions.

[BillyCrystals]

I stopped caring awhile ago. Even if we eventually get a Fallout 5 it will most likely be mediocre and woke like Starfield. I love 3 and New Vegas and I'm satisfied and grateful with those. And the great show might make me finally try out 76.

[shinoff2183]

What was so woke about starfield. I think your just tripping to bring political Ness into something where it's not needed.

It's sorta cute.

[HyperMoused]

Gamers, Bethesda games are so bugged on launch...also more games, faster, comee onnnnn

[jznrpg]

Look what they did with Starfield and it took a long time. You think games will be better in a shorter period of time?

[Christopher]

I honestly would rather they spend that "gap" time making new IPs rather than just pumping out more of what we've had a ton of. It's not like any of the Fallout or Elder Scrolls really rely on knowledge or player-derived actions from previous iterations as it is, so need for urgency for another contained story line in a location and for one of a handful of factions that Bethesda has decided on our behalf.

[gigoran8]

wait... they should crunch? But wasn't there a big whole thing about gamers being angry with studios making their employees crunch?

flip flop

[jeromeface]

I guess starfield was supposed to be made overnight....

[anast]

They can't even make a decent game with 10 years between games. How do you think the games are going to look they have less time?

[mrcatastropheAF]

What is happening in the court of public opinion for Bethesda and the Fallout IP will be an interesting case study in psychology in the future.

Went from a lukewarm reception to Fallout 4 upon release (and generally regarded as a lesser title in the series) to this is a great game and we need moar post a successful TV adaptation.

Went from Bethesda is absolute garbage post Starfield release and they should stop releasing garbage to "we need to shorten the gap between bethesda games" lmao.

Never change gamers

[Christopher]

Journalists writing articles to feed into the 24/7 news machine of getting ad revenue doesn't equate into public opinion about the quality or desire for more games.

[DarXyde]

I don't play these games, but that's ridiculous.

It's best to make them when you've got something new to experience. While we waited ages to see GTA VI, the absence seems to have truly made the heart of the public grow incredibly fond.

If they come back with a samey sequel, that would be unforgivable.

When it's ready, it's ready.

[Michiel1989]

I don't mind having to wait a long time for a new game in one of the franchises, but the end result needs to justify a long development cycle, which Starfield clearly didn't. Fingers crossed that ES6 will be good.