Fallout 5 likely won't arrive until the 2030s, but fans aren't done imagining what comes next

Fallout 4 launched in 2015. Nearly a decade later, there's still no sign of Fallout 5. Bethesda is focused on The Elder Scrolls 6, which itself remains years away, meaning the gap between mainline Fallout entries could stretch to 20 years or more. If Fallout 5 arrives in 2032 or 2035, players will have waited two decades for a sequel.

In the meantime, the series has moved to other platforms. Fallout 76 continues to operate as a live-service multiplayer game, and a Fallout television adaptation aired on Amazon. But neither replaces a new single-player entry in the core franchise.

The long wait hasn't stopped the community from discussing what the next game could be. PC Gamer recently explored several directions the series might take when it finally returns.

Remaster the originals first

Confirmation arrived that Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are receiving remasters. However, some fans argue that Fallout 1 and 2 deserve the upgrade instead. The original games are available on Steam but remain clunky by modern standards. A remaster that polishes them and ensures they run smoothly on Steam Deck could open these classics to newcomers who struggled with their dated interfaces.

Hardcore mode shows New Vegas at its best

Replaying Fallout: New Vegas with hardcore mode enabled reveals how survival mechanics reshape the entire experience. Hardcore mode doesn't delete saves on death. Instead, it implements STALKER-style survival systems where companions permanently die if defeated, eating and drinking become mandatory, and healing slows down. Ammo gains weight, making inventory management consequential.

These changes force players to engage with systems they might otherwise ignore. Cooking becomes useful when eating raw meat carries penalties. Perks suddenly matter when inventory space is contested. Giving power armor to a companion becomes a tactical decision rather than hoarding it. When bullets have weight, decisions carry weight too.

Fallout 4 took bigger swings than Fallout 3

Fallout 4 introduced settlement building, a voiced protagonist, and a more complex narrative than Fallout 3. Settlement building largely annoyed players. The voiced protagonist became controversial. A plot more nuanced than simple good-versus-evil played second fiddle to New Vegas, which tackled similar territory more effectively.

Fallout 3 succeeded more consistently but aimed lower. It was essentially Oblivion with guns. A fun world to explore with a great soundtrack, but not particularly ambitious within Bethesda's catalog.

Fallout 4, despite its experiments, remains more interesting because it tried harder.

The show's lore changes are justified

The Fallout television series took liberties with established lore, frustrating some fans. However, George R. R. Martin's Fire & Blood offers a useful parallel. The book presents history as conflicting accounts from unreliable narrators, mirroring how real history actually works. Different sources contradict each other. Facts get rewritten by people with agendas. What's recorded isn't always what happened.

The same logic applies to Fallout. A terminal entry in a game could reflect a mistaken account, a lie, or simply another unreliable narrator. If the show rewrites or stomps on established lore, that's consistent with how history actually functions. The show should feel free to do exactly that.

Let players be something other than a Vault Dweller

Fallout games consistently funnel players into Vault suits and Pip-Boys. In Fallout 2, you start as a tribal. In New Vegas, you're a courier. Both eventually hand you a Vault suit and transform you into another blue-clad protagonist with an overactive smartwatch. The Elder Scrolls lets players choose khajiit or argonian forms, but Fallout refuses to let you be something different from the start.

Fallout 76 allows becoming a ghoul, but only after reaching level 50. The most straightforward request for Fallout 5: let players begin as a ghoul, super mutant, synth, or something else entirely. Skip the Vault prologue. Fallout 3's opening is untoppable anyway.

Break free from the formula entirely

The series has calcified into predictable elements: super mutants, ghouls, the Brotherhood of Steel, deathclaws, Vaults, The Ink Spots on the radio, flying saucers, ramshackle settlements. These worked brilliantly in the original and made Fallout 3 immersive. But the show has repeated enough times.

Fallout doesn't have to feature Vault Dwellers, and it doesn't have to feature any of the established canon. The series could move beyond the desert entirely. Set Fallout 5 in the Deep South, Alaska, or anywhere distant from Vaults, where people survived through entirely different means and built societies unconstrained by Vault-Tec corporatocracy.

Or do something completely different. The point is simple: when Fallout 5 finally arrives, the series could use a genuine departure from what came before.