Todd Howard Saw the Fallout TV Boom Coming — So Why Is Bethesda Sitting on Its Hands?
Fallout is bigger than ever, with the TV series supercharging the franchise—and even Bethesda’s Todd Howard, who anticipated a post-show bump, says the surge has blown past their expectations.
Fallout is bigger than ever right now. The show gave the games a rocket boost, Bethesda knew some of that would happen, and even they were caught off guard by how hard it hit. The hype is real. The rollout? A little messier.
Todd Howard on the surge he expected... just not this much
'We sort of expected the franchise was going to get popular with the TV show. We have had a timeline of all the Fallout work that we have been doing and we are going to be doing. I will say, the popularity of the show is way more than we expected. So it really was making sure the games are ready for all the players who are coming into them.'
That is Todd Howard, via GamesRadar+, basically saying: yes, we planned for a bump, no, we did not plan for this big a bump, and we scrambled to make sure the games wouldn’t fall over when the TV audience came looking.
About that Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition...
The first big test of that plan did not exactly go smoothly. The Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition update upset a lot of fans because it broke a ton of mods. The timing stung, given the massive new interest after the show.
For the paper-trail crowd, the edition is listed with:
- Initial release date: November 10, 2025
- Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
- Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
That date listing is eyebrow-raising on its own, but either way, the headline is the same: an 'Anniversary' refresh arrived, and mod compatibility took a hit.
So where is Fallout 5?
This is where Bethesda’s priorities are rubbing fans the wrong way. Despite the franchise’s upswing, there’s still no public movement on a new mainline Fallout. Bethesda is busy with The Elder Scrolls 6, which doesn’t have a release window we can circle on a calendar. The cynical read: if TES6 lands this decade, Fallout 5 probably doesn’t until the next. I hope I’m wrong, but that’s the math people are doing.
Season 2 points toward New Vegas. The games aren’t following suit (yet).
The Fallout series has already been renewed for Season 2. The finale teased New Vegas, which set off exactly the frenzy you think it would. That should have been the layup: line up a Fallout: New Vegas remake to arrive alongside or shortly before the new season.
There were leaks suggesting Bethesda was working on a New Vegas project, and this was the perfect moment to cash that in. Instead, we got the Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition. Could a New Vegas remake still show up as a surprise? That suspicion is still floating around.
Big picture
Fallout’s pop-culture footprint is at an all-time high. Bethesda expected a wave, got a tsunami, and now has to thread the needle: keep the new audience happy without alienating the old guard. A clean mod-friendly update would have helped. A concrete plan for Fallout 5 or a New Vegas remake would help even more.
What do you want them to do right now: start building Fallout 5, or go all-in on a New Vegas remake to sync with Season 2?