The future of Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic franchise had been a little up in the air for a while, as the radio silence around the development of Fallout 5 grew deafeningly loud. The success of the TV show made another game a near-inevitability, and fans finally received confirmation that the game had been fully greenlit in the middle of 2025.

Though this is obviously good news on the face of it, there were many out there who had assumed that Bethesda Entertainment were quietly squirreling away on a new Fallout game in the background.

Therefore, the news that the project had been given permission to enter full production actually meant it was a lot further behind than many expected, and it’s safe to say that they aren’t happy about it at all.

Fallout 5 May Have Been “Greenlit”, But Fans Aren’t Happy

Over on Reddit, one user shared confirmation of the game’s status with the gathered internet masses, and the top comment remains simply, “We’ll have a real fallout before Fallout 5 comes out.”

The terrifying reality of the current state of global politics aside, it is a fair assumption that it will be a long time before we get to play the sequel, and they weren’t alone in expressing their consternation at that fact.

“It’s a given it was going to be greenlit, now we just have to wait about 8 years for it to come out,” one comment shared.

“So, basically, it won’t be done for at least 8 years if Starfield is anything to go by. We don’t even have an update for TES VI yet and that was announced in 2018,” another added.

The point about The Elder Scrolls VI is a solid one. Though we know that Todd Howard et Al. jumped the gun a bit, announcing the game before production had really started in earnest, we aren’t that far away from a decade since that date, and we’ve heard nothing else about how things are progressing.

When Will Fallout 5 Realistically Release?

Bethesda Entertainment

It’s difficult to know exactly how long Fallout 5 is going to take to make, but the unfortunate reality is that five years is a very speedy production cycle for modern-day RPGs.

More likely, 8-10 years is roughly what it will take for Bethesda to get a game of that scope out, particularly considering that they are prioritizing TES VI for the time being.

Hopefully, the momentum given to the Fallout franchise by the show gives the game side of things a little more impetus, and they can turn it out more quickly than that, but then we may be looking at a game that delivers more bugs than we’re comfortable with as players. It’s a difficult catch-22, so let’s hope they can find a way to navigate it.