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Update: It should be noted that Fallout: London’s team has released the progress update now.
Fallout: London is one of the biggest modding projects to come out of recent years. It looks to transform England’s capital into a nuclear wasteland using Fallout 4 as its base. Once destined for a release last year, then delayed, then re-scheduled for a later release on St George’s Day this year, then delayed once again thanks to Bethesda’s next-gen bombshell. It’s now confirmed that Team Folon have a date in mind. Still, progress updates come few and far between, and the fact that they are locked behind members-only paywalls has turned fans against the developers.
Before Fallout: London, there was Fallout New Vegas: The Frontier. First released in 2021, it was a massively ambitious project that looked to offer a whole new narrative to one of the most beloved Bethesda games out there. Unfortunately, its release was marred by critics ripping it apart for terrible writing, fetishisation, and stereotypical representation. While the project was technically ambitious, it acted as a reminder than fan-served creations often lack the tact and polish that a AAA-backed project might. Frontier burned Fallout fans, and it set a sceptical precedent for future mod expansion projects.
When Fallout: London came along, things looked a little different. The team appeared cohesive, eager to add its own flair to the franchise, and a lot more put together than Frontier’s. Fallout: London has also had wide press coverage; The BBC, The Verge, NME, and many, many more. The issue with this is that it raises the bar of expectations higher and higher. Once an ambitious project, there is now a clear pressure on Team Folon to perform.
Perhaps thanks to the scepticism encouraged by Frontier’s disastrous launch, and the repeated release delays, fans of the project are beginning to lose faith. In response to finding out that progress updates are locked behind a Patreon paywall, some have said that “as crazy as it sounds, this actually is looking more and more like a scam.” Another has said that it’s “bizarre that this is behind a paywall,” while others have said that “[Team Folon have] been dotting I’s and crossing T’s for a month now, when they supposedly had a playable mod ready for April 23rd, weird.”
Team Folon did have a chance to respond, though.
Patreon and Ko-Fi members receive updates 24 hours before the general public, which is our standard practice. The information you seek has now been posted in the other thread. Thanks for your interest!
Via Fallout4London mods on Reddit
Shortly after the paywalled progress update was brought to light, it was also shared to Reddit, and we’ve already written a piece highlighting that update.
Having spent my career watching and commenting on games launching – I think I can make pretty realistic observations of situations. If studios like Team Cherry and From Software get trapped in development hell, you’ve probably got to expect a group of volunteers and inexperienced devs to suffer from the same issue. Does Team Folon’s poor communication on a release mean that it’s a scam? Probably not. However, does the quality of communication mean that fans, especially those who have donated, have a reason to be sceptical? Absolutely.
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