Amazon’s Fallout series has thrust the game franchise it is based on back into the media’s peering gaze, meaning that more people are asking questions about the games. We’ve already covered the timeline of the Fallout setting and how the series interacts with the games’ lore, but what about the future? When is Fallout 5, the long-awaited next game in the series, coming out?

Let’s start with what we know about Fallout 5. It is an open-world game set in a post-apocalyptic world full of mutants, power armor, and a tongue-in-cheek take on 1950s idealism. Other than that, we don’t know much. The only people who could tell us more are the developers of the series, Bethesda, and even they don’t seem to have a good answer for us. Fallout 5 was confirmed to be “in development” back in 2022 but since then there has been radio silence from the developer. Their latest game, Starfield, reportedly took eight years to make, so that could potentially put Fallout 5’s release date into 2030 and beyond.

This isn’t terribly unusual in video game development, where the time and money needed to make AAA titles has increased rapidly over the years. Open-world games like Fallout 5, where player choice and having the freedom to explore is paramount to the experience, take even longer to make than more linear titles like Final Fantasy or Mario because the developers have to try to account for the fact that players can – and will – ignore the plot to go do silly stuff at the top of a mountain.

As for plot details about Fallout 5, we’re just as in the dark. We expect it will take place at the end of the Fallout timeline since that’s the trend that most games in the franchise have taken, but nothing is for certain. Until we get official confirmation from Bethesda themselves, all we can do is wildly speculate about when we’ll get to play Fallout 5 or even what it will look like.

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