In a recent interview, Todd Howard touched on much of Bethesda’s process and plans following the recent success of the Fallout TV adaptation. He also emphasized his intention to continue making games and stated that he’s got no plans to retire as of right now.
In speaking with Kinda Funny Games earlier this afternoon, Howard was asked about his timeline and how much he has left to do. He made it clear he has no intentions to stop:
“I don’t want to ever stop. I just- y’know, it’s too much fun. I love the work, I love the products. If I didn’t make these games I would just be playing them all the time…. And, they do take a long time. So, I think one of the things that we’re focused on here is obviously making sure they’re of the highest quality, but also, y’know, finding ways to increase our output because we don’t want to wait that long either, right? It’s never our plan, but we want to make sure that we get it right. And so, my hope is to do it kind of as long as possible. I have no plans of retiring or anything like that.”
Howard was also asked about whether the studio wished they’d had another Fallout game ready to launch alongside the show:
Greg Miller: “You’ve seen the numbers of so many people jumping back [into Fallout]. Was there a ‘Damn, I wish we could’ve had Fallout 5, or Fallout: whatever, out alongside the show?’
Howard: “No, not necessarily. We’re always making plans. And we have, in some ways or another, five kind of separate teams within the studio. We move people between both the work we do on Fallout, the work we’re doing on Starfield. We have some stuff coming that we’re really excited for people to see.”
Perhaps the most interesting piece of news, however, was Howard admitting that the studio still regularly has conversations about allowing other studios to contribute to their franchises:
“We’ve always had those conversations [about external development]. We did a lot of things for the show. It might seem like, “hey, there isn’t a big new game out,” but we added content into 76 for the show. 76 has a really great map expansion that’s coming this summer with Skyline Valley.
We look at what we’re doing with the franchise and then we say ‘Do we still feel good about-‘ I can’t reveal it now, but, ‘here’s our runway for Fallout as a franchise. We’ve got a season two happening. What are we doing on mobile? What are we doing in 76? What are we doing with… this thing? What are we doing with… this other thing? When are these landing?’ And again, if I could snap my fingers and have them all be out and ready, I would, but the main thing is like, ‘alright, how do we deliver these at a high-quality level?’ That’s always most important.”
Now, obviously, this statement’s very nebulous, but it sounds like Todd’s implying that there are a couple of unannounced Fallout projects in the works over at Bethesda. Hopefully the recent success of the show spurs them to reveal and release those sooner than later, but we’re looking forward to whenever they end up unveiling them to the world.
Todd also touched on Starfield’s upcoming content in the interview, which you can check out here.
