Fallout 4 Release Date and News Update: What to Expect from Bethesda

Feb 01, 2015 12:34 AM EST

Bethesda Games scored a winner when they released Fallout 3 many years ago, but there has yet to be a sequel.  There has been rumors of a release date for Fallout 4, but nothing relating to the gameplay or what else to expect. 

According to Design and Trend, a tweet from Kotaku's news editor Jason Schreier might be an indicator that Fallout 4 could be coming in 2015, or at least an announcement of the popular Bethesda game.  For those who are unfamiliar with Kotaku, it is a popular news site devoted to all things gaming-related, and perhaps he knows something that some news outlets can't get their hands on at this present time. 

Fallout is one of those video game series that is long overdue for a sequel, as Fallout 3 premiered in 2008 with amazing reviews and has developed quite a following.  The last offering of Fallout 3 was Fallout: New Vegas, which also received a lot of praise from both critics and gamers. 

Design and Trend reported that it seems that Bethesda may be hiring voice actors to work on a certain "AAA video game title", but this looks like it would be less Fallout and more Elder Scrolls 6.  So this work could be a sequel to the hugely popular The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  It seems odd that a sequel to Skyrim would happen before Fallout 3, as the former was released in 2011 and the latter released in 2008.  One would think that the greater demand for a sequel would be in the older gaming franchises, and not the younger.  Still, they are both pretty old, as far as video games are concerned, and released in a time before the Sony PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. 

In December 2013, there was a tease of a Fallout 4 with a website called "TheSurvivor2299.com",  but Kotaku revealed that it was a hoax.  Soon after, Kotaku reported a leaked script code-named Institute had several references to things in the Fallout setting and locations.  This script took place somewhere in the Boston area, with the name referring to Boston's MIT technology lab.  The plot of the script dealt with "The Institute" producing self-aware Android robots that could add some element into the already well-developed post-nuclear world of the Fallout game series. 

Fallout 3 was designed as a shooter game that takes place in a post-apocalyptic future after a great thermal nuclear war of 2077.  The player gets to see him or herself be born and then leave the Vault of a bomb shelter that they grew up in, entering a realm filled with radiation and weird creatures.  Players each have a Pip-Boy, a wrist console that gives information via a green-glowing monochrome screen, and receive information by Vault-boy, a darkly funny little mascot of this failed Duck and Cover civilization.   

Fallout 3 was definitely a step up for the series, and perhaps what keeps Bethesda from following up on it is that it would be a tough act to follow.  Big video game conventions like E3 and PAX Prime are happening in the summer, and that could be a good time for the company to announce game release dates.  Games that are announced there usually come out during the holidays or one year later.