The nicest surprise from this year’s E3 was the news that, following Bethesda’s initial announcement, the Fallout 4 release date is not that far away, with the game due out November 10th.. So used we are to E3 being the announcement stage for games due in two years, to finally see something for the first time and discover we can play so soon was exhilarating.
The reason why Betheda were happy to take this approach is because development on Fallout 4 is basically done with development. The studio is closing on the finish line, and is pretty confident that 2015 release date is attainable.
Talking to Games Radar, Bethesda’s Pete Hines said that they didn’t bother with the two-year hype build, simply because they didn’t feel they needed to. “If we didn’t feel like that was enough time to generate the excitement that we expected and the interest that we wanted, then we would have announced it earlier. So part of it is because we felt like it was a big enough title that we could get away with it,” he said.
It was a move that Bethesda could only do if Fallout was far enough into development to be able to hit that November 10 release date. And that’s exactly where the game is. “Part of it is getting the game to the point where it’s all done enough to be able to show so much of it. We’re pretty close to being done, which you have to be if you’re going to ship in five months”, said Hines.
“It’s really fun to get this far into development and not say anything and then go ‘Boo! Here’s all this stuff. Here’s what we’re up to’. Which isn’t even all the full monty it’s just a big wide picture”.