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Bethesda has teased a new Fallout game, Fallout 76.
Updated with new information based on a new report about Fallout 76's gameplay.
Bethesda has been signalling the announcement since yesterday and, on a stream today, Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard appeared to introduce the game, and explained that there would be more at E3.
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It's not yet clear what kind of game Fallout 76 will be, or which of Bethesda's studios has been involved in developing it. However, Fallout 76 is currently available for pre-order at the standard $59.99, suggesting it will not be a free-to-play game. It is currently only confirmed for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
The titular Vault 76 has previously been mentioned but never seen in previous Fallout games. A "control vault" containing 500 occupants, living in Vault 76 doesn't appear to involve the cruel experiments most Vaults in the series have been known for.
It's also not clear where Vault 76 is located, but the song used in the teaser, 'Take Me Home Country Roads' does mention "West Virginia", which could be a clue. Prior Fallout lore also gives us a clue about Fallout 76's setting.
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Fallout 76 Gameplay: Reportedly an "Online Survival RPG"
According to sources speaking anonymously to Kotaku, Fallout 76 reportedly will be an online survival RPG, along the lines of DayZ or Rust. According to Kotaku, Fallout 76 will still have quests and a story, as well as base building and "survival-based and multiplayer mechanics." The gameplay is "rapidly changing," though, according to Kotaku.
As for story details, IGN's own Jordan Oloman spotted what could be a date for the game's setting - October 27, 2102 - which would place it canonically before every other Fallout game released so far. It's also worth noting that October 28 was the release date for Fallout 3, 10 years ago - perhaps just a coincidence, but interesting nonetheless.
Ok, so I've done some trailer snooping. #Fallout76 is set prior to every Fallout game we've seen, occurs a few decades after the Great War. This is the year that Richard Grey (The Master) falls in the vat and mutates. Interesting. #PleaseStandBy pic.twitter.com/ALNaawhU6D — Jordan Oloman (@JordanOloman) May 30, 2018
Kotaku reports that its sources say Fallout 76 will be an online game, and is a co-development between Bethesda's core Maryland studio and its Austin office. Perhaps that makes it the "bleeding-edge AAA freemium game" we saw was in development last year?
We'll likely only learn more at Bethesda's June 10 E3 showcase - here's everything else we expect to see there.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and he is already being sick at the thought of "can I play it if I haven't played the other 75 games?" jokes. Follow him on Twitter.
Screenshot: Fallout 76 teaser trailer
When Bethesda announced Fallout 76 with a teaser trailer this morning, promising more information at E3, it was easy to assume that the new game would be a traditional single-player role-playing game. But Fallout 76 is in fact an online survival RPG that’s heavily inspired by games like DayZ and Rust, according to three people familiar with the project.
Those people, speaking anonymously so as not to damage their careers, confirmed that Fallout 76 is an experimental new entry in the longrunning post-apocalyptic series. When Bethesda first teased the game on Tuesday morning, fans and pundits speculated that it might be a Fallout 3 remaster or a New Vegas-style spinoff in a new location, but as Kotaku reported that afternoon, it is in fact something completely new and completely different. The teaser might lead Fallout fans to believe that this is a traditional entry in the series, but according to our sources, that’s not the case.
Originally prototyped as a multiplayer version of Fallout 4 with the goal of envisioning what an online Fallout game might look like, Fallout 76 has evolved quite a bit over the past few years, those sources said. It will have quests and a story, like any other game from Bethesda Game Studios, a developer known for meaty RPGs like Skyrim. It will also feature base-building—just like 2015's Fallout 4—and other survival-based and multiplayer mechanics, according to those sources. One source cautioned that the gameplay is rapidly changing, like it does in many online “service” games, but that’s the core outline.
The game is named after the series’ Vault 76, which has been mentioned in both Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. According to Fallout lore, Vault 76 was meant to open just 20 years after the nuclear war, allowing for a far less civilized setting than previous games. Fallouts 3 and 4, which are full of cities and settlements, both take place over 200 years after the war, after much of the population has had time to reconstruct human civilization. Fallout 76 will feel very different. As the narrator of the trailer says: “When the fighting is stopped, and the fallout has settled, you must rebuild.”
Fallout 76 is in development not just at Bethesda Game Studios’ main office, in Maryland, where the likes of Skyrim and Fallout 4 were made, but also at the company’s newest branch, in Austin, according to our sources. That Austin studio, formerly known as BattleCry Studios, had been working on an online hero combat game called BattleCry before that game was canceled. “We have concerns about the BattleCry game and whether it is meeting the objectives we have for it,” Bethesda told press in the fall of 2015. “We are evaluating what improvements the game needs to meet our quality standards. The studio remains busy during this process on multiple projects.” In March, Bethesda announced that BattleCry Studios had become part of Bethesda Game Studios.
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Bethesda did not respond to a request for comment. We’ll see more of Fallout 76 at the publisher’s E3 press conference on June 10.
Following a 24-hour livestream on Twitch, Bethesda Softworks unveiled the next game set in the Fallout universe. It’s called Fallout 76, which refers to the vault where it takes place.
The teaser trailer, embedded above, includes scenes set inside a relatively well-maintained fallout shelter. The vault looks decked out for a party, with balloons and confetti all over. A sign says that the occasion is called “Reclamation Day.” A Pip-Boy makes an appearance during the teaser, but there’s a conspicuous lack of weapons of any kind. The entire setting looks extremely domestic, set inside a child’s bedroom and a family living space.
The only character shown on screen is a single vault dweller, donning a blue Vault 76 suit and wearing a Pip-Boy with a date that reads Oct. 27, 2102. A broadcast in the trailer features an official saying, “When the fighting has stopped and the fallout has settled, you must rebuild.”
The teaser trailer’s musical score is a cover of John Denver’s 1971 hit “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” which could indicate that Fallout 76 takes place in the state of West Virginia. Files on Bethesda’s press site appear to refer to the game by the codename “Mountain,” which could also be a hint that the game will take place in or near the Appalachian Mountains.
Kotaku reported that Fallout 76 will be “an online game of some sort.” Polygon has also heard the game will feature multiplayer.
A press release sent out by Bethesda said Fallout 76 is in development at Bethesda Game Studios on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. We expect to learn more during this year’s E3 in Los Angeles. Bethesda has its own press conference, called BE3, scheduled for Sunday, June 10, at 6:30 p.m. PT. It’s the publisher’s fourth dedicated E3 event.
