Grave Gamer News & Views — fallout

Bethesda: “We Showed Three Games at E3” and None of Them Were Fallout 4

Skyrim had itself a long reign but the team behind the lauded, fantasy RPG time sink have officially ended DLC support for it and have moved on to their next project.

Given their great success in reintroducing the world to the post-apocalyptic wastelands of the Fallout universe (and reusing a Ron Pearlman soundbite that is just positively burned into gamers’ skulls), it’s no leap in logic for fans to expect Fallout 4 is next up off the bench…

However, Kotaku insists you’re stretching reason extremely thin if you believe Bethesda had a closed doors presentation for the game at last week’s E3.  The rumor began its life in the words of one journalist claiming he saw one surprise Bethesda failed to announce at the most publicized industry event of the year.  Microseconds later, Fallout 4 was name dropped hard enough to break the floor.

As they invariably do, the rumor grew bigger and bolder until certain sites were reporting specific details about the game including which consoles it was coming to (basically everything without a Nintendo logo on it), when it was coming out (October…of 2015), and a completion estimate of 55%.  A teaser trailer clocking in at nearly over half a minute was also purported to be shown; gravelly Pearlman voice-over and all.

If members of the press really got see a forty-five minute presentation on one of the biggest franchises in gaming…Where were all the headlines?  Well, whether Fallout 4 is in production or not, this “Easter egg” E3 presentation probably didn’t happen.  Skeptical?  Here’s what Bethesda shot Kotaku’s way:

“We showed three games at E3 - Wolfenstein: The New Order, The Elder Scrolls Online and The Evil Within. We did not show any of our games behind closed doors.”

I know what you’re thinking.  “We live in a world where they swore to us Steve Carrell wouldn’t be back for The Office finale."  I know.  I know.  But food for thought: for all intents and purposes, E3 serves as a monolithic, flashing billboard meant to advertise to gamers the world over and permeate in consumers’ heads until buyin’ season kicks off.  Why wouldn’t Bethesda want to take advantage of that platform to stir Fallout fans into a frenzy?

[If Fallout 4 is announced next week, the correct answer to that question is, "Because they’re goddamned liars.  When can I pre-order?”]

Fallout: The TV Series?

This might amount to no more than the internet readily springing to the nearest conclusion, but when has Bethesda’s trademark filing antics let us down before?  This go around, however, we’re not talking about outed DLC.  No, it would seem this new filing points to the company’s intention to take over a whole different medium altogether.

Bethesda has recently registered a trademark for “an on-going television program set in a post-nuclear apocalyptic world."  Well, that’s a mighty interestin’ course of action considering Bethesda happens to be the current rights holder and publisher of the Fallout series.  I’d venture to say the two notions are related in some inconceivably, far-fetched way…though I’d be damned if I knew how.

Sorry to disappoint those that thought we were on the verge of a Fallout 4 announcement thanks to voice actor Erik Todd Dellums’ tweet last week where he teased that his character Three Dog – Galaxy News Radio’s DJ last heard in Fallout 3 – would be making a return in some fashion.  (That’s not to say there hasn’t been rabble about Fallout 4, though.  This is the internet, after all.)

Video games on television don’t have a terrific track record – go ask Mortal Kombat: Konquest the sordid truth…if it’s not too drunk to respond, that is – but I’m not one to underestimate some of the creative minds coasting around in the entertainment business.  It just takes the combination of the right talent with the right material to create the TV equivalent of cigarettes for your eyeballs.  So judgement reserved until if and when this one actually happens.

Is The Commonwealth to Be Fallout 4’s New Wasteland?

Bethesda’s open-world RPG formula has had the good fortune of going from popular in Fallout 3 to insanely fucking popular with the release of Skyrim.  While a return to the Fallout franchise has not been made official by the company, it’s probably a safe bet that Bethesda is already pouring resources and development time into a successor considering their upward acclaim from title to title.

With that in mind, we can sink our teeth into this irradiated slice of a rumor.  Speaking through the information laden avenues of Reddit, an anonymous user that “may or may not” be affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claims Bethesda is scouting the Boston region, researching the locale with the intention of using the city as a backdrop for Fallout 4.

The proverbial Pip-Boy fits given that The Commonwealth – Fallout’s apocalyptic version of the greater Massachusetts area – has already been referenced in series lore.  Specifically in Fallout 3, a Blade Runner-esque subplot involving androids escaped from a place called “The Institute” (need I mention MIT?) serves as one of the more prominent mentions of The Commonwealth.

What’s the most important information we can glean from this rumor?  That there are even rumors circulating in the first place, which equates to the first shaky steps in seeing this franchise continue.  If this rumor be fact, that means pre-production has commenced…unfortunately that also probably means we won’t see Fallout 4 until the next console cycle.  That’s the industry, kids.  It never changes.

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