Fallout 5: Bethesda's Todd Howard Says He Has Ideas, But Don't Get Too Excited Yet

Bethesda's Todd Howard has ideas for the next mainline Fallout game. Speaking to IGN, Howard was asked if Bethesda might hand a potential Fallout 5 off to another studio in a similar way to how it tapped Obsidian to develop Fallout: New Vegas.

Nothing is certain yet, Howard said, but he does have some ideas in mind for the next game.

"I don't see... Look, Fallout's really part of our DNA here," he said of developer Bethesda Game Studios. "We've worked with other people from time to time--I can't say say what's gonna happen. You know, we have a one-pager on Fallout 5, what we want to do."

The "one-pager" is likely a reference to a single-page document containing high-level details about the next Fallout game. Clearly, it's very early days for the next Fallout game.

Howard went on to say that Bethesda's main focus right now is on November 2022's Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6, which remains years off. A potential fifth mainline Fallout game would follow sometime after, so it would be a very long time. Howard said he wishes development could progress faster.

"If I could wave my hand and have [Fallout 5] out--you know, I'd like to find a way to accelerate what we do, but I can't really say today or commit to anything, [like] what's going to happen when," Howard said.

While Fallout 5 might not be here anytime soon, Bethesda is working with Amazon on a Fallout TV series from the creators of Westworld.

The latest entry in the Fallout series is Fallout 76, which released in 2018. In a big shift for the series, the game is a multiplayer, online game. It had its fair share of issues at launch, and Bethesda has updated and improved the game since then.