Following the anniversary announcements on Fallout Day, a reader argues that Microsoft should let someone other than Bethesda make Fallout 5.
So Fallout Day wasn’t worth celebrating, again. If you saw Bethesda’s latest Fallout livestream on Thursday, you’ll know that it started off with a trailer for something called Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition, which was cut as if it was remaster – although they never said what it was. And then later, if you went on the shop site, it became clear it was just the same game as ever in a different box.
They also showed Fallout: New Vegas 15th Anniversary Bundle, for about 30 seconds, which was the same thing but with a ton of pointless merch that jacked up the price and will probably fall apart as soon as look at it. In other words, they did nothing for either anniversary. Fallout Shelter got a bigger update, for its 10th anniversary, which is just tragic.
It’s often forgotten by younger gamers that Bethesda did not invent Fallout. They bought it and their first game was Fallout 3. Now, that was a fine game, don’t get me wrong – very innovative in its day – but the idea was not theirs, even though they did reinvent what type of game it is. But now I think it’s time for someone else to give it a go.
Bethesda get a lot of stick from their fans and I’m afraid I’m going to be another of those ungrateful, entitled brats. I loved the Fallout games, and Oblivion and Skyrim, but I don’t feel that they’ve done anything good since then, and that even Fallout 4 was badly flawed. Although to be honest, they’ve hardly done anything since then, just Fallout 76 and Starfield.
I know modern games take longer to make but one of the big problems with Bethesda is that they are s… l… o… w… That’s fine if they hit it out of the park every time but they don’t. They are also very bad at keeping up with new technology. They haven’t been anywhere close to state of the art since at least Oblivion, I would say, and they must know everyone keeps complaining about things like facial animation and loading times, but they never do anything about it, almost like they’re punishing fans for even bringing it up.
I may be an entitled fan, but you do get the impression that Bethesda are a bit too quick to believe their own hype, while blinding themselves to their faults. I don’t want to talk about Starfield, as I believe that subject’s been beaten to death, but I would love to sit in on the debrief for that one. Something tells me they did everything they could to convince themselves it wasn’t that bad.
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So, as you might have gathered already, my suggestion is that Microsoft, who own Bethesda, take Fallout off them and give it to other developers to work on. Given the things we’ve been hearing about Microsoft lately, all their developers are on the chopping block and I doubt anyone is safe, even Bethesda.
They’ve barely started work on Fallout 5 and yet season 2 of the Amazon TV show is almost out. That show’s not going to be the big new thing forever and will probably be completely over by the time Fallout 5 is out, whether you take it away from Bethesda or not. Because they’ve just wasted too much time by now.
But the other reason they should let someone else try is that they’re just not innovating anymore. Starfield was filled with really old gameplay ideas (why am I picking locks in the 23rd century?) and very old-fashioned seeming dialogue systems. Almost nothing has changed since the Oblivion days, and I wouldn’t put any bets on it being much different for Elder Scrolls 6 or Fallout 5.
The pre-Bethesda games were isometric, turn-based role-players and Bethesda turned them into first person action role-players. That was great but now they’re stuck in that groove and they need to evolve again. Into what I don’t know – I’m not a games developer – but to me the obvious answer is to give it to another developer, to try their take on it.
Then Bethesda can concentrate on The Elder Scrolls and make sure the next one is good and that the one after doesn’t take another 15 years. Because if The Elder Scrolls 6 disappoints you know the Microsoft execs are going to come for them.
I class myself as a Bethesda fan, but they have to acknowledge that they’ve been getting things wrong and make changes to their approach. If they don’t make some surgical cuts then Microsoft are going to do it for them… with a sledgehammer.
By reader Kliney
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