Fallout 5 Comes With A Dire Warning Ahead Of Official Reveal

With this season of the Fallout TV show underway and gaining traction, everyone is waiting to see how it’s going to impact the lore of the series. No matter what side of the fence you’re on, Bethesda has made it clear that Fallout 5 will reflect some of the show’s choices.

While we’re likely still years away from Fallout 5, there’s no doubt that it’s going to be a major release. Speaking to ESI, former Bethesda developer Nate Purkeypile had a lot to say about the Fallout series, and what its future may look like.

Fallout 5 Comes With An Unfortunate Caveat

It’s A Lot To Live Up To

Purkeypile cut their teeth on Fallout 3 and 4 at Bethesda as a world artist, and also served as a lead artist on Fallout 76. They’ve been immersed in the series for years, but they also think Bethesda has its work cut out for it going forward.

Speaking on the issue of expectations, Purkeypile notes: “Yes, and that definitely factored into me leaving because Skyrim being one of the top 10 games of all-time, how do you beat that? If they do, great! And I hope it’s a great game, but even if it’s just as good as Skyrim was, you’ll still get so many people throwing out hateful comments…all of that stuff. It’s really unfortunate that that’s the way things have gone.”

Open-world game developers are often under the most pressure to deliver, especially in a long-running series. Fallout has recruited even more fans with the show, who are all eagerly awaiting more information on the next entry.

In the same interview, Purkeypile also muses on how New Orleans would be a great setting for Fallout 5, and rebuked another potential option: “Some people think it should be in New York or somewhere like that but man, I don’t need another game set in New York. There are so many New York games, and people know that city so well.”

Bethesda Revealed It Early

A landscape shot from The Elder Scrolls 6 teaser trailer.

The Elder Scrolls 6, also currently in development at Bethesda, follows a similar narrative. Formerly announced at E3 in 2018, we’re nearly a decade past that mark, and there’s still nothing really to show for it.

Even Purkeypile seems to be caught off guard by the early announcement of The Elder Scrolls 6: “My assumption was always that we were announcing Starfield, and it had been so long already since Skyrim that we needed to make sure people were not just pissed at us. It’s a very expensive way to do that, though. Those trailers are not cheap.”

He explains that there is “more economic pressure” to ensure that the game is “good” rather than “just getting [it] out on a date.” If that mantra remains true at Bethesda to this day, it could be a while before we see The Elder Scrolls 6 in earnest. But what’s a few more years?