Xbox Allegedly Wants to Speed Up Fallout 5 Launch

[Diggfinger]

Xbox Allegedly Wants to Launch Fallout 5 While TV Show Excitement Is Still Fresh​

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The Fallout TV show has brought the franchise a lot of new fans, and Xbox reportedly wants to reap the fruit while it's still fresh.

Insider Gaming claims the studio wishes to speed up the development of Fallout 5, citing Jez Corden, who said that the company "is aware" of the series' popularity. It looks like a sound plan to keep the attention on the franchise while the novelty and excitement of the show haven't evaporated.

However, Bethesda is now focused on The Elder Scrolls 6, and Todd Howard isn't willing to share any Fallout 5 updates, so chances are the game will be given to another studio if Xbox really plans to release it sooner than expected at the moment. After all, TES6 is said to be years away from completion, and there are Starfield updates to consider.

 

[Butter]

Wow. Maybe there's a chance of Fallout 5 being good.

 

[Cross]

However, Bethesda is now focused on The Elder Scrolls 6, and Todd Howard isn't willing to share any Fallout 5 updates, so chances are the game will be given to another studio if Xbox really plans to release it sooner than expected at the moment.

 

[Bulo]

Somehow, Brian Fargo returned.

 

[deuxhero]

MS being shortsighted as always. Should have put Fargo and inXile on a 3D overhead spinoff over a year ago.

 

[Gargaune]

To be fair, more dev time didn't help Starfield. Maybe it's worth trying it the other way around.

 

[ind33d]

they should just turn 76 into the default platform for all fallout content

 

[deuxhero]

To be fair, more dev time didn't help Starfield. Maybe it's worth trying it the other way around.

Even in the good days, you weren't going to see a good 3d game without a shortage of content go from start of production to release in less than 1.5 years (and more likely closer to 2) if it wasn't a sequel reusing loads of assets. The time to put inXile on Fallout was, at the latest, when BG3 proved to be a huge hit.

 

[Lord_Potato]

MS being shortsighted as always. Should have put Fargo and inXile on a 3D overhead spinoff over a year ago.

If they wanted to have something for the release of tv series, then more like 2-3 years ago.

MS purchased iniXile in 2018. Amazon purchased rights to Fallout tv series in 2020. MS should have given the assignment to either Obsidian or iniXile back then - it was already obvious that Bethesda was busy with Starfield and unable to deliver anything Fallouty.

Even if MS makes some decisions now there will be 3-4 years before we see a final product. Even if the chosen studio works on Starfield engine, which is already quite obsolete.

 

[Gargaune]

The time to put inXile on Fallout was, at the latest, when BG3 proved to be a huge hit.

I don't think drawing parallels to BG3 is the thing to do, clearly Microsoft's newfound enthusiasm for Fallout is related to the TV show and that was built on Bethesda's handling of the IP. Which is to say I doubt they're shopping around for a lateral move to an isometric tactical cRPG, whether they balloon Bethesda even more or hand it over to inXile or Obsidian, the marching orders for a new mainline entry are guaranteed to be per Bethesda's design format. Though they might try to plug the gap with some quick side stuff like more Shelter on mobile or whatever. Or more miserable Fallout 4 patches.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Oh, I'm sure Fallout is not coming back to isometric format.

MS already has a post-apocalyptic isometric, turn-based and party based series, Wasteland, they don't need another to canibalize the fanbase.

If Fallout is coming back via Bethesda, Obsidian or inXile, it will be as an action rpg on a modified Starfield engine.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Somehow, Brian Fargo returned.

Remaster of original games in Wasteland 3 engine.

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

Because rushing a game has always worked.

 

[scytheavatar]

Wishful thinking from Microsoft, when you see people mention Obsidian and inXile you know how out of options Microsoft have. They will need to open a new studio to make a Fallout 5 cause someone like CDPR might be able to pull it off. The likes of Obsidian and inXile isn't going to cut it.

 

[d1r]

Will they drop the pretence of being a RPG, and become a full looter-shooter?

 

[Lord_Potato]

Because rushing a game has always worked.

I mean Fallout 2, KOTOR2 and New Vegas turned out to be quite cool, all bugs be damned.

 

[Habichtswalder]

I think they overestimate the length of a typical TV-hype. By the time any studio would be finished with Fallout 5, there is already a different "flavour of the month" - series.

 

[Skinwalker]

I feel like Failout 5 could be given to Obshitian, and it would still be shit because the Obshitian of KotOR2/New Vegas/NWN2 does not exist anymore.

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

This is what modern executives get far reacting instead of planning. The time to start developing a Fallout game to sync with the TV series was a few years ago. The problem is that doing that back then, before the show's somewhat unexpected popularity, would have required risking a lot on its success. It's so much safer to wait for the show to come out and then be left staring like a deer at headlights.

 

[Poseidon00]

I think they overestimate the length of a typical TV-hype. By the time any studio would be finished with Fallout 5, there is already a different "flavour of the month" - series.

It is always extremely stupid to use a TV shows popularity as a foundation for other media products like video games for exactly this reason. The interest goes away very quickly, and rarely ever translates.

 

[Lord_Potato]

I think they overestimate the length of a typical TV-hype. By the time any studio would be finished with Fallout 5, there is already a different "flavour of the month" - series.

It is always extremely stupid to use a TV shows popularity as a foundation for other media products like video games for exactly this reason. The interest goes away very quickly, and rarely ever translates.

TV show popularity might have been unexpected, by the games were always popular. MS should have ordered production of a new Fallout game when they acquired Bethesda. If needed be, by Obsidian or inXile, which they purchased even earlier.

 

[deuxhero]

The time to put inXile on Fallout was, at the latest, when BG3 proved to be a huge hit.

I don't think drawing parallels to BG3 is the thing to do, clearly Microsoft's newfound enthusiasm for Fallout is related to the TV show and that was built on Bethesda's handling of the IP. Which is to say I doubt they're shopping around for a lateral move to an isometric tactical cRPG, whether they balloon Bethesda even more or hand it over to inXile or Obsidian, the marching orders for a new mainline entry are guaranteed to be per Bethesda's design format. Though they might try to plug the gap with some quick side stuff like more Shelter on mobile or whatever. Or more miserable Fallout 4 patches.

Anyone could have looked at Bethesda a year or two ago and determined Fallout 5 was never coming out of the studio within the coming decade, even before Starfield wound up being such poo, since TES6 hadn't even finished pre-production and was coming first. Not keeping your billion dollar franchise dormant in the market for that long, especially when you've got a big media deal on it, is basic. By the same standard I think MS should have put one of its other smaller studios on a remake of Shadowkey (or rather, a first person melee focused action game with Shadowkey's plot and rough world design) so there's a "new" real TES game before 2030, when people before after the last game came out are adults.

 

[911 Jumper]

These franchises will die at Xbox, lol.

Look at how they treated Halo – Xbox's flagship franchise.

They couldn't even handle game development when they just had the Xbox and PC to worry about. But somehow Xbox is gonna be multiplatform masters delivering great games within a reasonable time frame?

 

[Gargaune]

Anyone could have looked at Bethesda a year or two ago and determined Fallout 5 was never coming out of the studio within the coming decade, even before Starfield wound up being such poo, since TES6 hadn't even finished pre-production and was coming first. Not keeping your billion dollar franchise dormant in the market for that long, especially when you've got a big media deal on it, is basic. By the same standard I think MS should have put one of its other smaller studios on a remake of Shadowkey (or rather, a first person melee focused action game with Shadowkey's plot and rough world design) so there's a "new" real TES game before 2030, when people before after the last game came out are adults.

I'm not arguing that, it always seemed puzzling to me that BGS would bloat their slate with the Starfield IP when they take ages to develop flagship titles and already had a successful Elder Scrolls/Fallout leapfrog, I'm just saying I don't think BG3's success would've provided any argument for or against their Fallout plans, it's not a pertinent event.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

InXile is too small and Obsidian have their hands full with TOW2 and Avaporware.