I think we all knew this was coming at some point, but I guess it’s still nice to hear some sort of news even if it’s still early days. Xbox and Microsoft have reportedly greenlit Fallout 5 for development. However, it’s unclear who exactly will be leading the project and what studios it’ll fall to.
According to Windows Central Executive Editor Jez Corden, who appeared on the Xbox Two podcast, Xbox has given the go-ahead for Fallout 5. That being said, Corden’s comments suggest that Xbox’s green light may have come at the cost of Blackbird, the MMO project that ZeniMax had been working on prior to the mass layoffs at Microsoft. Blackbird has also since been cancelled.
Corden stated that Microsoft viewed MMOs as expensive to build. Furthermore, getting Blackbird to a state where it could compete with genre heavyweights like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, or even The Elder Scrolls Online would take a lot of time and money. To that end, Xbox and Microsoft figured it would be safer to take that money that would’ve gone towards Blackbird‘s development and invest it into Fallout 5 instead, which would be a “surefire win”.
“It was a case of ‘Do we want to sink a ton of money into getting [Blackbird] to a point where it can compete with the established players in the market, or do we want to allocate that investment towards making Fallout 5?’,” said Corden.
I’d certainly be curious to know if ZeniMax and Bethesda even have the manpower to work on Fallout 5 anytime soon. After all, The Elder Scrolls VI has already been announced (years ago, I might add) and Bethesda’s still not shown us anything. Not to mention the fact that the team is still working on DLC for Starfield.
I’m not surprised by the push for Fallout 5, though. The series saw a huge surge in popularity with the release of Prime’s own Fallout adaptation, which got renewed for a third season even before Season 2 makes its debut later this year. Why not capitalize on the hype by announcing a new game, right?
