Developer and publisher Bethesda's director and executive producer, Todd Howard, refines his statement about the studio currently working on three longer-term projects.
For those unaware, during the DICE Summit 2016, Bethesda's Todd Howard announced that the studio is working on three "big and crazy" projects, but when asked about them in a recent interview with the outlet gamesindustry.biz, the Fallout 4 director explained that the statement he made wasn't completely accurate. As it happens, Howard lamented even providing a concrete number in relation to the projects, as it led to imprecise speculation.
The Bethesda executive went on to say that the company is currently dealing with more work than ever before, and as a result, it's difficult to exactly define the parameters of the tasks at hand. In order to explicate the matter a bit more clearly, Howard said:
"I should have never said a number because we have so many things. You could add it up in different ways. You could say it's bigger or smaller. They're a long way off. I think the larger point was, no one should expect to hear about those [games] anytime soon. We always overlap projects. We just have more going on now than we had before.
"Part of that's the growth of the studio. We have the Montreal studio now and we're going to be doing different things. We feel we have a pretty good footing and we're in a particular place and time where we can try some new things and be confident that they'll find some success."
Although Howard's elucidation on Bethesda's future enterprises offers no additional insight into what will come to pass for the company, it makes sense for the studio to not reveal anything just yet. Developers haven't even released the first three DLC packs and Season Pass content for Fallout 4, after all, so a definitive report from Bethesda on its prospective enterprises would be jumping the gun, especially since it all seems to be in the nebulous planning stages.
At this point in time, it's really anyone's guess as to what Bethesda has in store for fans as far as new games go. With the long-term success of Fallout Shelter surprising everyone, the studio expressed an interest in making more mobile games, so it's likely we will see another title of the free-to-play variety crop up eventually. Not to mention, thanks to a recent post from voice actor Ryan Alosio on Instagram, it's rumored that Fallout 5 is in pre-production, so it's entirely possible for the studio to break the standard tradition of producing an Elder Scrolls title after releasing an entry in its post-apocalyptic franchise.
Whatever Bethesda's ideas for future games are, there's no doubt that it will end up generating plenty of excitement once the titles are officially announced. With any luck, the studio's next offerings will go on to push the envelope in terms of what's possible for the medium.
What's your take on Todd Howard's clarification about Bethesda's upcoming projects? Do you think we'll see another Fallout sequel before an Elder Scrolls game, or is it possible that the studio is prepping to launch a completely fresh franchise altogether? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Bethesda's current bread and butter is Fallout 4 and Fallout Shelter, the former of which is available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, while the latter can be played on Android and iOS devices.