Fallout 5 release date speculation – everything we know so far

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Fallout 5 release date when?

• There is no word on a release date for Fallout 5.
• It stands to reason we can expect Fallout 5 after Elder Scrolls 6.
• Due to this, we can maybe guess Fallout 5 will not be until 2030.

With the recent surge of interest in Fallout thanks to the TV show, many are now wondering when the Fallout 5 release date might be. It’s now been nearly 10 years since we had the chance to explore the nuclear wastelands when Fallout 4 came out, so it’s no surprise that many want to even the smallest crumb of news on Fallout 5. Sadly, Bethesda is very busy making The Elder Scrolls 6, which is almost certainly going to be the studio’s next project. Here’s everything we know about a Fallout 5 release date, and our prediction for when we can expect it.

Fallout 5 release date speculation

Unfortunately, we have no idea when we can expect to see a Fallout 5 release, and by our estimate, we won’t be seeing it for a good few years yet. We know that Bethesda at least has plans for Fallout 5, with Bethesda’s Todd Howard providing confirmation of this in 2021, but that it was nothing more than a ‘one-pager’.

And it looks like it’s probably going to stay that way for some time. Right now, Bethesda has just released Starfield back in 2023 and we can expect that its attention is now on The Elder Scrolls 6. At E3 2022, Howard said that they won’t be looking at the next Fallout game until after they’re finished with The Elder Scrolls 6, which itself is only in pre-production.

As such, based on what we know about the game and what we know about Bethesda’s other projects, we can’t see Fallout 5 arriving any earlier than 2028, but it could very well not arrive until 2030 and beyond – we simply don’t know yet.

Fallout 5 platform speculation

We don’t know what platforms Fallout 5 will be available on, given how far in the future it will arrive, but we would expect it to be available on PC and a future generation of Xbox consoles. The Xbox Series X is already nearly three years old, so while it could conceivably receive a port of Fallout 5, it’s almost certainly not going to be the flagship version. 

Previous Fallout games have also been released on PlayStation as well, but given Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda, it’s less likely that Fallout 5 will come to Sony’s console, similar to how Starfield did not launch on PS5. That’s everything we’ve got regarding a potential Fallout 5 release date. Unfortunately, there’s not much to go on, but we’ll be updating this piece as and when we know more.

Fallout 5 gameplay speculation

Naturally, with the game so early in development, we don’t know anything concrete about what the gameplay and mechanics will be like, though we think it’s safe to say that it will probably be along the lines of Fallout 4 and other titles in the Fallout series. One change that could be made is the addition of a multiplayer mode, as Fallout 76 featured, though we think the main series games will remain a single-player experience.

One thing we can be pretty confident about is that Fallout 5 will be developed with a new engine. Fallout 76 was the first game developed by Bethesda in the Creation Engine, and Todd Howard has already confirmed that the studio is developing Starfield using Creation Engine 2. Whether Fallout 5 will be developed in this engine or a new future engine, it seems likely a new engine will be used regardless.

Fallout 5 location speculation

Fallout 5 will also likely take place in a new location, somewhere in a post-apocalyptic United States. While the first two Fallout titles took place in California, the series has since branched out with settings in Washington, D.C., the Mojave Desert, Boston, and Appalachia.

One major contender for Fallout 5’s setting is New Orleans, with a trademark application for ‘Fallout New Orleans’ being filed in 2016, though we haven’t heard anything since. Meanwhile, in-game references have mentioned the existence of Enclave outposts in Chicago and Alaska, leading many to believe either of these locations could play host to the next title.

Another possibility is for the series to move outside of the United States, to take a look at how nuclear war has affected other parts of the world. This could be as near as Canada, or could take players around the world to Europe, Russia, China or more.