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Bethesda confirms Fallout 5 amid Xbox layoffs
Bethesda confirms Fallout 5 is in preproduction, alongside Fallout remasters and a new Obsidian project, as Xbox cuts around 3,200 jobs.
Image: The Verge
Fallout 5 is officially in development, but Bethesda Game Studios says the next mainline entry is still years away. The announcement arrives as Xbox begins a “reset” that includes plans to lay off around 3,200 employees over the next year, with cuts affecting studios including id Software, Obsidian Entertainment, and Bethesda itself.
Bethesda director Todd Howard outlined the company’s upcoming projects in a statement:
“We’re investing more deeply in the worlds players love, giving creators a bigger role in shaping their experiences, and bringing our teams closer together so we can get our games into your hands sooner, support them longer, and continue building them alongside you for decades to come,”
Fallout 5 and the next Fallout games
Howard described Fallout 5 as a “long-range destination,” with the project currently in preproduction. He also said Fallout is “one of our biggest priorities today.” The confirmation comes more than a decade after Fallout 4, the last mainline release in the series.
Since then, the franchise has expanded through the online spinoff Fallout 76 and a live-action television series. A separate new Fallout game is also in development at Obsidian, the studio behind 2010's Fallout: New Vegas. Howard said Bethesda will share more details in the future.
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Remasters of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are likewise in development, although neither has a release date.
The Elder Scrolls VI remains Bethesda’s priority
Howard provided no release window for The Elder Scrolls VI, first announced in 2018. He said the game will use the same technology platform as Fallout 5 and remains Bethesda’s primary development focus, with most of the team working on it.
“We’re where we planned to be, loving how it looks, and playing it every day.”
Howard also said Starfield “remains an important part of our future.”
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma previously said the company would focus more heavily on its most bankable franchises, with the eventual goal of becoming “one of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day.” Microsoft acquired Bethesda and its parent company, ZeniMax, for $7.5 billion in 2021.
The timing of the announcements—soon after Xbox’s showcase in June and during the same week that ZeniMax employees rallied in Maryland to protest the layoffs—makes the slate look like an effort to reassure players amid the cuts.
Culture Editor
Maya explores gaming, streaming, and the internet as a place where people actually live. From deep-dives into creator economies to the anthropology of digital communities, she tracks platform drama and cultural shifts so you don't have to. She believes the best tech stories are fundamentally about human behavior.
via The Verge
