It’s undeniable. Fallout is an absolute hit, and the age of terrible TV adaptations and low expectations is behind us (Halo notwithstanding). After years of sub-standard, terrible adaptations like Resident Evil (Milla Jovovich, Kaya Scodelario, and Netflix all have something to answer for), Max Payne, and countless others, we gamers thought we were in for the long haul while waiting for good quality TV and movies. Well, that wait is certainly over.
First, we got The Last of Us, then the critically panned but as-equally fun The Super Mario Bros. Movie which was an incredible Mario experience, if a terrible film, and now we have the excellent Prime Video Fallout. And this wealth of good gaming content on the big screen means a few knock-on effects in the actual gaming space.
Xbox and Microsoft Won’t be Blind to Fallout’s Recent Successes
As already mentioned, Fallout is a success, to put it simply. A cultural phenomenon might be a bit strong, but somewhere in the middle is about right. From your nan who’s never heard of, let alone played the games, to the questionable choices of parents letting their ten-year-olds watch the show, Prime Video’s Fallout is reaching an entirely new audience.
Everyone is talking about the show right this second, and more than that, years-old games in the franchise are finding players in record-breaking numbers.
Fallout 76, considered by many for years as the worst installment of the entire franchise, is being lauded as a masterpiece, hitting all-time high numbers of players on Steam (and that’s without accounting for console players as well), and the Fallout franchise is dominating new releases in the weekly sale figures for Europe, and presumably the world as well. This is unprecedented.
In another tangentially related knock-on effect, the original Fallout 3 is back on the drawing board, in no large part thanks to the interest from the show. This may be the first time this has ever happened, and likely to be the last, but it is incredible to see!
Did the same happen with Halo? Or The Last of Us? Sure, both got a bit of a bump, and the latter certainly grew in notoriety, but nothing like this, and for that reason, you can pretty much guarantee the appearance of Fallout 5 on PlayStation 5, or PS6. It’s just too obvious and big a market for Bethesda, Xbox, and Microsoft to ignore, and the show proved this in spades.
Starfield was the Beginning and End of Bethesda’s Xbox Exclusivity
If we’re looking back with 20/20 hindsight, this may have been on the cards anyway. After the atrocious performance – both in sales and actual game performance – of Starfield, Xbox suddenly had an announcement to make, which we now know was the cross-platform release of four first-party Xbox games in Grounded, Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, and Sea of Thieves.
All of these have led to strong numbers in pre-orders, betas, and also actual in-game performance, with other outlets reporting significant upticks in various gaming metrics, from frames per second to input latency and much more.
Add all this to the Fallout-mania going on right now, and there’s just too much to miss out on by keeping it exclusive, and arguably would be one of Phil Spencer’s worst decisions in years, which is saying something for Xbox’s CEO.
Rumors continue to persist that the four games already mentioned aren’t the last, and with those successes, it’s almost certainly guaranteed we’ll be seeing others join PlayStation and Xbox to continue their descent into being a third-party developer, regardless of their promises to still continue with the hardware.
Xbox’s Summer Showcase is likely to be the biggest in years, and will certainly indicate the direction the company is looking to go. Some consider it a lock for the likes of Starfield and Indiana Jones: The Great Circle to be announced for PlayStation, whilst others think we’ll finally be hearing more on ‘the greatest technical leap of a generation’ in the not-so-secret Xbox in development. It could be both, we don’t know just yet.
Exclusivity is also becoming something of a relic in itself, which is only a good thing that will benefit gamers, as gaming is something that should be enjoyed together, after all.
Of course, we have years to wait till we find out one way or the other where Fallout 5 will land, with Bethesda and Todd Howard announcing previously that the next installment in the wasteland will be after Elder Scrolls 6, which whilst it is in development, is years away itself. The gaming industry can change in many significant ways between now and then.
What do you think? Will we see Fallout 5 on PlayStation as well as Xbox/PC? Let us know in the comments below!
