Bethesda’s Fallout Tease

I’ll admit it:  I am a huge Fallout junkie.  Over the years, I’ve put hundreds of hours into both Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 4, so like many others, I freaked out when I saw this post from the Twitter account for Bethesda Game Studios earlier today:

A teaser for a new Fallout-themed announcement?  This definitely got my attention, but the intrigue didn’t stop there.  Thousands of people, including me, are currently glued to a Twitch stream teasing a pending announcement:

Presumably, this is all leading up to some sort of pre-E3 announcement.  What that announcement is, however, is leading fans to theorize.  Some say that it’s a remaster of Fallout 3 in celebration of its ten-year anniversary, or perhaps a Nintendo Switch port of either Fallout 3 or 4.  Others believe it could even be a Fallout MMO in the same vein as Elder Scrolls Online.

Personally, I think the theory that holds the most weight is the potential for a new Fallout game.  It may not formally be Fallout 5, but it could be similar to what was done with Fallout New Vegas, in which another company develops the game and Bethesda publishes it.  My main reasons for this belief are as follows:

1. This is a lot of hype for a simple remaster or port, and Bethesda doesn’t make a habit of over-hyping a reveal.  When Skyrim was remastered, it was something Bethesda showed on the E3 stage, but they weren’t putting out teaser trailers and all-day Twitch streams in advance of the announcement.  I wouldn’t personally be disappointed to find out this was a remaster or port, but many others would be and it would hurt Bethesda’s abilities to market products in the future.
2. Making a Fallout MMO doesn’t seem like it would make a lot of sense.  Around the time that Fallout 3 came out, Bethesda considered going down this path, but ultimately decided against it, likely due in part to a long legal battle with Interplay, the company responsible for the first two Fallout games.  Coming back to this idea now seems odd, as their Elder Scrolls MMO is quite popular, and releasing another game of this nature would just split their player base.  More importantly, the concept of a post-apocalypse doesn’t lend itself well to massive online servers.  I wouldn’t rule this out entirely, but it seems unlikely.
3. Finally, making a Fallout 5 would basically print money for Bethesda, which will allow them to focus on other projects.  Bethesda frequently takes chances on long-dormant franchises (like the upcoming Rage 2) or tries to think outside the box with new ideas.  Fallout 4 sold a lot of copies, and it makes sense to strike while the iron is hot and people are still excited for more game content.

Overall, Bethesda’s track record shows that the length of time between teasing a game and announcing it officially is short, so chances are we will be finding out what this mystery game is in the next day or two.  In the meantime, I will be waiting excitedly for the official reveal.

Note:  This post is imported from a prior blog, HannieBee Games.