Bethesda director Todd Howard discusses that the long-term success of Fallout Shelter came as a surprise, and that more mobile games are on the horizon.
The outstanding success of Fallout Shelter, the mobile spin-off of the iconic Fallout series, surprised gamers and the developers alike. According to Bethesda director Todd Howard, Fallout Shelter will soon be joined by other mobile games from Bethesda.
In an interview with Gamespot at DICE 2016, Todd Howard discussed Fallout Shelter's success, and how it surprised the team that worked on it. Rather than focusing on how much money they could earn from the title, Howard says that the team focused on putting lots of enjoyable content into the mobile game. The gambit apparently worked, as Fallout Shelter went on to be a massive hit, with the title earning an estimated $5.1 million in microtransactions in the first two weeks alone, and gamers anxiously awaiting the Android version of Fallout Shelter to be released.
According to Howard, Bethesda developers wanted to make sure that a mobile game would be suitable for the Bethesda brand. Since Bethesda series like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are well known for their large quantities of content, the team wanted to bring a similar experience to the mobile title:
"Mostly we were concerned with it being appropriate for who we are - meaning it's got a bit more meat on the bone than other things like it."
Howard went on to state that Bethesda does have plans to create more mobile games, but he wasn't willing to share any information regarding what these games might be. That's in keeping with Bethesda's history, as even Fallout Shelter wasn't announced until the day before it became available for download. Bethesda also has three long-term projects planned, so it's entirely possible that mobile games may take a back seat to them, or any future mobile games might be based off one or more of these three new projects.
Fallout Shelter was a massive success for Bethesda in part because it's one of the few free mobile games that doesn't force gamers to make purchases in order to progress. While the game has clearly made a ton of money despite this, many gamers appreciated the fact that they could enjoy everything the game had to offer without spending a single cent on it. While popular mobile games like Candy Crush and even major console hits like Metal Gear Solid V are raking in money via microtransactions, Bethesda has gained gamers' respect for not pushing them in Fallout Shelter, and not including microtransactions in Fallout 4 at all.
It remains to be seen if the Elder Scrolls or any other current Bethesda franchises will be getting mobile spin-offs or sequels in the near future. Gamers should have plenty to look forward to from Bethesda, though, both on mobile devices and traditional gaming platforms.
Bethesda's first mobile game, Fallout Shelter, is available on iOS and Android devices.
Source: Gamespot