shikamaru317 said:
Yeah, this is definitely a small team to build a AAA game of this scale. The only AAA games with a comparable scale really are RDR2 (1600 devs) and Cyberpunk 2077 (started with about 250 when full development first started, ended with 500+devs by the time the game launched). Starfield by comparison would have started development with about 150 and ended up with just under 300 by the time it released. That is just very small for a game of this scale in terms of map sizes and hours of content and different gameplay systems. It's why Starfield relies on automation for so many development tasks from landscape development to creature/alien creation to randomizing elements of the character creator they designed for background "citizen" type NPC's. Bethesda has always been undersized compared to the size of the games they make, they made Skyrim with about 90-100 and Fallout 4 with 140 as I recall, when Skyrim released the average AAA dev team was like 200 devs, while when Fallout 4 released the average was more like 300 devs. Bethesda absolutely needs to staff up in the coming years, and a big staff up at that. They have 3 popular IP's to develop moving forwards instead of 2 like the old days, and AAA game development continues to get larger and more expensive each passing year. Bethesda Game Studios overall needs to aim to hit like 750 devs within the next 4 years imo, split with about 100 on Fallout 76 content development, 450 on TES 6, and 200 on Fallout 5. They can no longer afford to develop one main game at a time now that they have 3 big IP, instead they need to aim for active development on two of the 3 IP at once (rather than active development on one and pre-production on a 2nd like they currently do). The only other good option besides simultaneous development on TES 6 and Fallout 5 would be to let Obsidian make a Fallout spinoff, so that fans won't have to wait until like 2034 for the next big Fallout RPG. |
Hot Take...?
Do we even "need" a Fallout 5? I may be way off the mark here as I'm not a big fan of Fallout so I'd be interested in what Fallout fans think, I've only played New Vegas, I've seen some of Fallout 4. Does Bethesda need to do a Fallout 5? From what I can see, Fallout doesn't really change much entry to entry, it's the same apocalyptic destroyed world which never progresses despite the nukes setting off long ago, it's feels like a similar theme and factions entry to entry, there's from what I can tell, no direct connection between Fallout 3-4, people in the Fallout universe still use the same stuff to build the same stuff, what I guess I'm saying is there's really no progression in the core story, the only thing that changes is the story revolving around the main character and the location.
So why exactly do we need a Fallout 5? Do spinoffs like New Vegas not fill the same hole? Would there be any difference between a "Fallout 5" and lets say, a Fallout "UK" or a Fallout "Any Location" I guess what I'm saying is that Bethesda could drop the mainline entries and just hand Fallout out to other studios to make location specific spinoffs, I feel like Fallout has a shorter life than Elder Scrolls and Starfield anyway, there is so much you can do with those games but Fallout Imo has hit a wall, they can't do anything more than apocalyptic wasteland but in a different location. So why put a huge amount of effort into Fallout 5 and not instead just make more focused spinoffs like New Vegas? Different locations but a great story, no connection to any other entry.
I'm cautious about the idea of a Fallout from Obsidian, after everything they've said over the years it gives me doubts, Obsidian has been pretty clear that they don't want to grow into a huge studio so in order for Obsidian to take on Fallout, they'd have to shelve Avowed or The Outer Worlds...It'd be a shame to see them shelve either original IP. I definitely wouldn't want them to put Avowed on the shelf because as I've said, I'm not a huge fan of Fallout and I much prefer fantasy RPGs over apocalyptic wasteland RPGs. I'd be more accepting of The Outer Worlds but still a bit bummed.
Even if that happened, it would be developed by a small team, even Avowed is less than 200. Could they work on a Fallout with a ~150 team without it taking like 5-6 years? In addition to that they'd have to re-learn the Creation Engine which adds further development time. Obsidian also makes it clear they don't want to work on huge AAAs, as they said with Avowed, they prefer more focused, mid-sized AAAs and I would hope Fallout fans would understand that and not expect some gigantic Fallout from Obsidian.
If Obsidian expanded then I would be down for it but they unfortunately don't seem like they want to expand, Obsidian should have multiple studios, they could have a studio dedicated to Fallout or Bethesda could open a studio dedicated to Fallout in California and co-develop with Obsidian or even InXile could staff up and co-develop a Fallout with either Obsidian or Bethesda as InXile seems to have no objections to becoming large and have only one game in development so they're ripe for expansion, Obsidian has 3 games at minimum in some form of development, Lol.
I think either 4 of these scenarios could be good.
- Obsidian opens a 2nd studio dedicated to Fallout and co-develops it with Bethesda.
- Bethesda opens a 2nd studio in California dedicated to Fallout and co-developers it with Obsidian.
- InXile expands and co-develops a Fallout with Obsidian with Todd executive producing.
- Bethesda gives Fallout to Bethesda Austin and they develop the next Fallout.
