Fallout 5: Confirmed details (and speculation) about Bethesda's next post-nuclear RPG

Bethesda's gone and done it again. It's reconfirmed that Fallout 5 is in development even though it's still years away from Reclamation Day. As we once knew about the next Elder Scrolls' place in the development pipes relative to Starfield, Fallout 5 will launch after TES6, and this time we've not even got a logo on a mysterious unidentified bit of scenery to obsess over.

I can't gloss over how Bethesda firehosed out an announcement of pretty much every single thing it's working on right now as either a distraction from, or refutation of, the impact that the massive Microsoft layoffs will have on its projects. Fallout 5 certainly is in development, but we don't know what its plans were prior to the layoffs and how they'll inevitably change the scope or direction of Fallout 5 after.

Fallout 4 Anniversary (Image credit: Bethesda)

When might the Fallout 5 release date be?

What we know for sure is that Fallout 5 will release after The Elder Scrolls 6, which we still don't know even a release year for. Maybe it won't be as long as the still-widening gap between Starfield and TES6, though.

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In its July 2026 announcement, Bethesda said that TES6 and Fallout 5 are both being developed in Creation Engine 3, "a shared technology platform" it's been building since Starfield's launch. "It allows our teams to support multiple projects simultaneously," Bethesda also said. So there shouldn't be any reinventing the wheel between releases this time.

Lauren Morton

As a run-of-the-mill Fallout fan who's played most of the games but not exactly a lore scholar, even I have some doubts that the studio that created Starfield (or what's left of it after the layoffs) can create a Fallout game I want to play. I'll always feel fond of Fallout, especially in its weirdest moments, but I fear that Fallout 5 could lean on caricatures of sassy robots, buzzcut authoritarians in power armor, and cowboy factions without the substance underneath.

Fallout 76 (Image credit: Bethesda)

Fallout 5 setting speculation

What's been (mostly) confirmed about the Fallout 5 setting:

• "Fallout 5 will be existing in a world where the stories and events of the show happened or are happening," Todd Howard said of the Amazon TV show
• "Our plan is to predominantly keep it in the US," Howard told Kinda Funny when speculating about Fallout series locales

At this point, any specifics on when and where Fallout 5 will be set are total speculation. Todd Howard has said that the "Fallout schtick" is intertwined with "Americana naivete," so any official Fallout London probably isn't on the table, though jaunts up into Canada (in Fallout lore, it was annexed as the 51st state before the war) maybe could be.

Where in the post-nukes US might Fallout 5 be set though? Honestly I just don't want it to be Florida since I'm going to get enough of that from GTA 6 (and there's already a Fallout 4 mod in the works set in Miami). Say what you will about Fallout 76, it certainly has a vibe in chasing the Appalachian geography, folklore, and history. I'd bet on Fallout 5 attempting an equally strong pitch with a location that's really easy to sell the spectacle (or maybe just the accents) of.

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Having already been to some iconic east coast and west coast locations, maybe Fallout 5 could take us into the midwest. Somewhere like Detroit would have a lot of potential for classic Fallout storylines about corporate industry tomfoolery. Somewhere up north like Montana would allow for some really striking scenery just like West Virginia did for Fallout 76.

Fallout 4 Vault 111 (Image credit: Bethesda Game Studios.)

How long has Fallout 5 been in development?

Fallout 5 hasn't been in development long, but what Bethesda has said so far makes it sound like it hopes to drastically cut down on the years between its major RPG releases.

Way back in 2021, Todd Howard said Bethesda has a "one-pager" on Fallout 5 and what it wants to do. Fallout 5 has likely been some excited scribbles on a whiteboard for most of the five years since then, honestly.

As of July 2026, Bethesda says "Fallout 5 is currently in preproduction" which means it's more than a twinkle in Todd's eye but still probably far out from any kind of playable version.

"Our teams are now developing The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 on Creation Engine 3, a shared technology platform we've been building since Starfield's launch," Bethesda also said in July.