A new Fallout game? Already! But we haven’t even finished building our painstaking recreation of the Expert Reviews offices inside of Fallout 4 yet! In typically surprising fashion, Bethesda has launched a teaser trailer for a brand-new and wholly unexpected Fallout title, called Fallout 76. The day before, the company posted this cryptic clip to its Instagram feed, which sparked all kinds of speculation in the gaming community; our hopes of a sequel or remaster to 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas or were scuppered when New Vegas developers Obsidian denied their involvement with Fallout 76.
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The next day, Bethesda uploaded the first teaser trailer for its upcoming title, called Fallout 76, to the studio’s YouTube channel. Rumour has it that this will not be a whole new Fallout game, but rather an online game built using the Fallout 4 engine. Website Kotaku broke the story, implying that a source inside Bethesda Studios confirmed the online aspect of the game. You can watch the trailer below but, as you’ll see, it raises more questions than it answers. Hold on, what’s that sound? Could it be a...steam engine? Looks like the Fallout hype train is pulling into the station once again. All aboard!
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Fallout 76: What we know so far
As little as that teaser trailer reveals – we don’t even see any characters – it’s hard for Fallout fans not to get excited. We don’t leave the Vault in the trailer, but the TV announcer suggests that we will, in order to “rebuild” a civilisation eviscerated by nuclear war.
The number 76 stands for Vault 76, the location of the trailer and presumably of the wider game. This Vault has appeared twice in previous Fallout games, but only ever by name. The Fallout wiki page about Vault 76 tells us that this underground bunker housed 500 occupants, and was designed by shady technology company VaultTec to open just 20 years after the bombs dropped, which would place the game’s timeline in the year 2097. But wait! The date on the Pipboy at the beginning of the teaser reveals the date to be 21 October 2102, 5 years after the Vault was due to open - could this be why it's empty? If you do actually go outside in Fallout 76, it would be the earliest stage in any Fallout game when you get the opportunity to do so.
Since much of the teaser revolves around aspects of life inside the Vault itself rather than the post-apocalyptic Wasteland, we might be seeing that the game takes place entirely within the Vault. This would be a first for a Fallout title, apart from the tower-defence strategy game Fallout Shelter – although even in that, you were able to go on exploratory missions in the wider world outside. As for where Vault 76 itself is located, based on the radio song from the trailer – John Denver’s “Take me Home, Country Roads” – it could be nestled in among the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
If this is an online game, as Kotaku suggested it would be, and if it’s using the same Fallout 4 Creation engine, then the map will likely be far smaller than Fallout 4. While there are whispers on the interwebs about a potential Fallout Battle Royale mode, we have no choice to ignore them until we receive further information. Although we must say that, as huge fans of both Player Unknown's Battlegrounds and Fallout, the idea is most appealing.
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Fallout 76: When will it come out?
Nobody has any idea whatsoever about when Fallout 76 will come out. All we can do is wait until E3 2018. Bethesda’s press conference takes places on Sunday 10 June, when Bethesda is expected to present an in-depth reveal for Fallout 76. This should hopefully a new trailer, gameplay details, and, of course, a release date. Who knows, it may even get a “Fall” 2018 launch, which would put it around the October/November mark.
Fallout 76: What consoles will it play on?
As we can clearly see in the trailer, Fallout 76 is definitely running on the same Creation Engine as Fallout 4, so if you want to play it you’ll need a PS4, Xbox One, or PC with decent specs to play the game. Fallout 4 did not come out on the Nintendo Switch, although a tweaked version of Skyrim eventually did; if Fallout 76 does come to the Switch, it won’t be at the time of the initial launch.
Watch this space for more Fallout 76 news. We’ll be updating this article as soon as further updates land.