Bethesda has a "one-pager" for Fallout 5, but it's still a long way off

As one of Bethesda's biggest and most beloved series, it's not much of a revelation to hear the company is already mulling over a new Fallout instalment, but studio director Todd Howard has now talked a little about a potential new series entry, confirming that while an idea exists, Fallout 5 is still a long way off.

Speaking to IGN as part of a Skyrim 10th anniversary retrospective, Howard explained that currently the studio has a "one-pager" for Fallout 5, outlining what it wants to do with the series. However, sci-fi adventure Starfield, due to release next year, and The Elder Scrolls 6 - which was still in its design phase, as of June this year - remain the studio's priority, meaning it could be years before working on the next Fallout begins in earnest.

When asked about the possibility of shifting responsibility for a new Fallout over to another studio - after all, Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian is now also within the Xbox Games Studios family - Howard only offered that "Fallout's really part of our DNA here".

"We've worked with other people from time to time, he added. "I can't say say what's gonna happen...If I could wave my hand and have [Fallout 5] out, you know, I'd like to find a way to accelerate what we do, but I can't really say today or commit to anything, what's going to happen when, other than our cadence is Starfield then Elder Scrolls 6".

In the meantime, of course, Fallout fans have the option of diving into Fallout 76 - Bethesda's troubled, and rather divisive, online multiplayer take on the post-apocalyptic series - which is still managing to make headlines in large part thanks to an enormously dedicated and creative player base. Recently, for instance, a theatre troupe staged and streamed a 40-minute production of Macbeth live in-game, performed in a custom-built location modelled after Shakespeare's Globe.