Todd Howard, director at Bethesda Game Studios, has confirmed Fallout 5 as the developer’s next title after The Elder Scrolls 6. The announcement comes after the announcement that Bethesda has decided to move forward with The Elder Scrolls 6. Speaking with IGN, Howard confirmed Bethesda Game Studios is working on plans right now for Fallout 5 but said that will not begin work until The Elder Scrolls 6 is completed. As the development of the long-awaited Starfield continues, as well as the pre-production work on The Elder Scrolls 6, Bethesda boss Todd Howard has revealed plans for the upcoming Fallout title.
While fans are waiting on The Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5, Bethesdas and Todd Howard’s next major RPG, Starfield, is currently scheduled for a release somewhere during the first half of 2023. As it seems based on Howard’s interviews, Fallout 5 is going to go into active development following The Elder Scrolls 6s release. With two big games scheduled before Fallout 5, it does not appear that there is time for anything else, but nonetheless, studio head Todd Howard confirmed Fallout 5 is certainly his next title following The Elder Scrolls 6.
That being said, it was reported earlier this year that Fallout 5 might actually end up being New Vegas 2, with discussions taking place between Microsoft and Bethesda. Recently, it is been said that one of Microsofts other competent RPG studios may be making a new Fallout spin-off to fill in the gaps, similar to Fallout New Vegas, on which Obsidian is working. Bethesda has recently announced that it is engaging a third-party studio in further developing Fallout 76. It is possible Bethesda could in the future alter the Bethesda working model so as to allow for two larger teams to work on individual games at once, but even in that scenario, it is highly unlikely Fallout 5 would have been released in this decade.
Todd Howard has CONFIRMED that Fallout 5 will be releasing AFTER Elder Scrolls 6! Let's talk about it.https://t.co/QiinpRioxE
— LoneVaultWanderer (@LoneVaultWander) June 14, 2022
In an interview with IGN at the end of the Xbox Extended Showcase, Todd Howard talked a little about the challenges of making huge games like Skyrim and Fallout, and how much time is needed to do it, while also reiterating that The Elder Scrolls 6 is in pre-production, and Fallout 5 is not coming out until later.
This, of course, would suggest that Bethesda game studios alone Bethesda game studios will devote five years per their next games, and that core development would not be outsourced. Reacting to Bethesda Game Studios’ lengthy periods in between games, and the lengths that sequels typically take, Todd Howard told IGN, Yes, Elder Scrolls 6 is preproduction, and, you know, Bethesda Game Studios is going to do a Fallout 5.
Earlier this year, a Bethesda Softworks employee confirmed Starfield is the only title currently under full production. According to Howard, the upcoming Starfield space RPG has taken seven years of work to get there so far, and should Fallout 5 have a similar scope and ambition, it probably means that we will not see that project for at least 2030, given the priority The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to be given. With The Elder Scrolls 6 seemingly some distance away from being fully produced, amid the continued work on Starfield, which was delayed until 2023 quite recently, we could reasonably expect Fallout 5 will not be a playable title for eight to as many as 10 years.
