Introduction: Amazon Prime created a huge hit when it recently launched the Fallout TV show. With its mixture of high-budget quality, sheer brutality, and oddball humor, it fully captures the feel of the famous video game franchise but also generates a resurgence of player interest in the original games, as well as a foundation for some new ones yet to come.
Article: The genesis of the Fallout TV show has been well-documented in the past year or so. It premiered on Amazon’s Prime Video at the start of April 2024, but it began its development way back in 2020. Even though many tried to reach out to Bethesda and get the rights for the same gaming franchise, the company finally agreed to the terms offered by Amazon Studios. Two years later, pre-production finished and the production cycle was on its way, with veteran Hollywood actor Walton Goggins starring, along with Ella Purnell, who is playing Lucy MacLean. While the TV show has multiple perspectives, it can be argued that Lucy, as the young vault dweller who breaks into the wastelands to look for her kidnapped father, is the main character. Around her, the world of Fallout games to its full glory, with the additional fact that the TV show is fully set in the canon of the same gaming franchise.
It takes place in 2296 and connects to the events of Fallout: New Vegas, especially because it is set in the wider Los Angeles region. Quickly after its debut, the show became a hit and in no time at all, it generated enough interest for Amazon to renew it for a second season. At the same time, its massive success, especially among the fans of the same gaming franchise, managed to push the Bethesda library of releases as well. That is why games like Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 saw a big uptick in players and their engagement inside of these post-nuclear gaming worlds. It also offers some interesting options for Bethesda and its developers, being that the gaming audience seems more than ever ready for a brand new Fallout video game.
Gaming Film and Video Adaptations
Getting a good adaptation of a video game in any format is not easy. However, it is the hardest to do in the form of a TV show or a film. Still, in recent times, there have been several incredibly successful video game TV show adaptations. This stands as a stark contrast to the previous two decades, where video games usually got their movie versions, but rarely good ones. For example, titles like Max Payne and Warcraft were turned into semi-successful films, but many others, like BloodRayne, Alone in the Dark, and Doom became near-parodies of their original material. That is why many from the film and TV industry were reluctant to try their hand at new films. However, with the rise of streaming services in the mid-2010s, the option of making TV shows became a more feasible alternative.
Here, things started to turn to more favorable outcomes for both the creators and the audiences. Thanks to the same pivot towards TV shows, the global gaming public got things like The Witcher, which was based on the incredibly successful fantasy RPG series. Later on, through a collaboration between HBO and Naughty Dog development studio, the show The Last of Us was created, giving way to a huge TV hit, but also a show that received high praise from critics and reviewers. That is why for the creators of the Fallout TV show, the path towards success was not an unknown road. However, because of the unique and often weird nature of the source material, the Fallout TV version still had its massive potential pitfalls. Luckily for all Fallout fans, the showrunners avoided all of them.
Winning Formula of Fallout TV Show and Gaming Boost
The showrunners behind Fallout TV decided to blend two elements that are generally unusual in the world of top-tier television and streaming. The first element is a high level of dedication to the source material. From worldbuilding to character design and all the way to the smallest writing elements, including stuff like catchphrases characters use, the show is a huge homage to the Fallout universe. The second element, however, is offbeat humor and the ability to gently shock the audience. The show does this either with sexual content, violence, or the sheer unnerving nature of living in a world desolated by a global nuclear war. In that mixture, they managed to find a lot of common ground with all of the fans of the same franchise. That is why it is no wonder that so many flocked to the older games from the Fallout universe.
That is why Fallout 76, which had a rocky release back in 2018, saw its all-time best result for simultaneous players on Steam. In mid-April, that number stood at nearly 44,000 players roaming the wasteland of radioactive Appalachia. Fallout 3 saw a rise of 118% in its Players on Steam, while substantial jumps in player engagement came to Fallout: Nev Vegas and Fallout 4. Even the now-ancient Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics got an injection of new audiences craving that original Wasteland experience. Across the internet and social media, many commented that they even took up Fallout Shelter, a mobile video game in this setting that is arguably one of the best casual gaming simulations of all time. There can be no denying it – the Fallout TV show injected a big stimpak into the Bethesda franchise. Now the question is – how will the company try to use it for its upcoming Fallout releases?
Fallout 5 Plans
With plenty of air in their sails, the Bethesda path towards Fallout 5 is now more secure than ever. But, in the past couple of years, the company has been working on its new franchise, which is the recent Starfield release. While the next installment of the Fallout series is in the works, it will not come about anytime soon. Todd Howard, the key developer at Bethesda, said in 2022 that Fallout 5 simply is not the team’s priority. Present calculations show that at the very earliest, the game could come out between 2027 and 2028, having in mind the upcoming Elder Scrolls 6 that should arrive first. But, with this level of TV show popularity and continuation, Bethesda might decide to reach out to other developers and create a new mobile device game, for example. This could continue the trend of Fallout Shelter, but also do other genres, like card game options, for example. Other smaller titles are possible too, but one thing is almost assured – the world will see a new Fallout video game of some type a lot sooner than 2028.
Author: Ivica Milaric, game designer and assistant professor of game design at the Novi Sada Academy of Arts, Republic of Serbia