Fallout 5 May Not Be As Distant As Assumed
By Published Apr 1, 2026, 3:01 PM EDT James is a gaming writer from London who has spent thousands of hours exploring titles from every genre. Though he has a particular affinity for multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft, Destiny 2 and League of Legends, he has also put thousands of hours into single-player experiences, from deep RPGs to epic PC strategies. When he's not playing or writing, he can usually be found supporting his beloved Brentford FC. Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap
The franchise is in a remarkably popular place right now, particularly given the fact that we haven't had a game in the mainline single-player series since 2015.
Though there is obviously still plenty of fun to be had with the older games, it would be very nice if we could have a new entry before too long. Unfortunately, given that we've heard nothing of a potential sequel just yet, that seems like something of a pipe dream.
Add to that the development cycle that AAA games seem to have to go through in 2026, and we could be looking at a world where we don't get another Fallout game until well into the 2030s. That said, there is a slim ray of hope that could see one release sooner, though Bethesda really have to put in some hard yards to make it a reality.
Fallout 5 May Not Be As Far Off As We Thought
In an with IGN right in the middle of 2026, Bethesda head honcho Todd Howard shared a bunch of insights into everything that's going on at the developer, including with the production of the two big franchises they have under their stewardship right now.
Essentially, the studio is dialed in on right now, though Fallout 5 is absolutely the next big project on the table, as Howard explains, "We're going to do Fallout 5 after that, so our slate's going to be pretty full going forward for a while," he confirmed.
Interestingly, he has since built on that in an exclusive with Game Informer at the end of 2026, in which Howard said the following, "The majority of the studios are on [Elder Scrolls] VI, but I’ll say this: We always overlap. We’re very used to overlapping development."
We also know that got the green light to go into full production last year, but hopefully they had been working on the game in some capacity before that.
The Elder Scrolls 6 Comes First
As Bethesda have made abundantly clear, the real focus is absolutely on The Elder Scrolls VI right now, particularly given the fact that there hasn't been a main entry in that particular series since 2011. That won't serve as much in the way of solace for those fans who are much more locked into Fallout, but we can at least hold out hope that the materializes before too long.
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