Forums » General Gaming

Pete Hines - Take on FO4 (a rant)

    • 856 posts
    July 24, 2013 10:25 AM EDT

    This is just a general rant.  I, as many of you, have been waiting for some Fallout 4 news. I've seen clues and hints of its production here and there, but then I came across this quote from Pete Hines:

    " I mean [fans] have been clamouring for a Fallout game for a long time now," he said. "What people need to understand ... expecting information like that in any short period of time after they moved off one project to the other is really unrealistic.  We are not into annual franchises - just trying to spin out a version of our game year, after year, after year - like, we have never done that, I don't see that it is something that we are doing anytime soon. But that doesn't mean that we are going to take our time and wait six or seven years in between a game that a studio puts out."

    So what is Pete trying to say here (How that guy got a PR position is beyond me.) One sentence he says, 'long time now' - the next sentence he say 'short period of time'.  Which is it, Pete?  Ok, Bethesda game studios is not going to release a new fallout game each year.  Duh, Pete, we can see that.  Now let's look at his math.  Fallout 3 was released in October of 2008! (I'm not including Fallout:NV, since Bethesda Game Studios did not develop it).  It is now 2013 - it has been nearly FIVE years, yes five years since BGS last installment of Fallout. Is that a 'short amount of time'? But they are (according to Pete) are "not going to wait six or seven years", yet we still have no information on a release date. Well if he intends to remain true to his statement (first time for everything, eh?) we should see Fallout 4 by September of 2014.  Well that's not 6 years, but 5 years and 11 months.  Hell, even ESV has been out for nearly two years, adding that game to the mix, if they announced a 2014 release date for FO4, that would still put 3 years between their games (We also know that in the past, Bethesda has overlapped their projects.). So it's not going to be every year - (What is this 'year after year' BS he's spewing?)  Yea, we get that Pete, and pretending that we, the fans, are demanding a game every year is just delusional.  We are not asking for a game every year, but one every five years (or 3 years if you include ESV) cannot be unreasonable.

    Rant Over.

    So what is your take on this? Is five+ years a short amount of time?  Do you think they will pull a surprise and announce a release date soon?  Do you think we'll see a Fallout game this year, or in 2014, or will it be longer?  Any other ideas?

    Source

    • 1483 posts
    July 24, 2013 10:36 AM EDT

    The only thing that might make sense in his words is if Bethesda Game Studios just started working on Fallout after moving from Skyrim. I thought the company was large enough to afford two simultaneous projects though

    • 856 posts
    July 24, 2013 10:39 AM EDT

    They've always in the past started their next project before completing their current project.

    • 209 posts
    July 24, 2013 10:40 AM EDT

    He does my head right in anyway. There seems to be a fad of extremely poor PR guys recently.

    It's not as if FO3 came out last year, we aren't complaining with a sense of entitlement, we are simply encouraging and making our wishes known! 

    I think we will hear something soon, December at latest, maybe something along the lines of what happened with Skyrim. Release date announced in December, game released late the next year.

    • 1483 posts
    July 24, 2013 10:41 AM EDT

    Well, they might've started working on Fallout just recently, a few months before the announcement of no more DLCs. They also need to take into account new console generation, learning new coding features of those might take time as well. 

    • 209 posts
    July 24, 2013 10:42 AM EDT

    I personally think they would have started development toward the end of the development of Skyrim.

    • 490 posts
    July 24, 2013 10:46 AM EDT

    I think the delay is total crap. 5 years for a Fallout game is plenty of time. I don't know really what exactly it takes to create a video game, but I am sure it is a lot. However, with Bethesda being one of the powerhouses of the industry today, they should know this stuff and be working on new projects as soon as possible.

    We better see a release of FO4 or at least a hint at it very soon ... or I will be sad.

    • 1483 posts
    July 24, 2013 10:53 AM EDT

    Yeah, I was reminiscing of Fallout 3 lately and would love to see Fallout 4! Would've been cool to see it happen in LA or New York!

    • 209 posts
    July 24, 2013 10:58 AM EDT

    I would like New York ! Then maybe a spin off in Europe :P! Although that would make the FO1 FO2 old guard crazy mad.

    • 856 posts
    July 24, 2013 11:30 AM EDT

    I played FO1, FO2, FOT, FO3, FONV - and I would love a change of scenery.  Europe would be fine with me.  Of course some of the people were upset when they just switched coasts in the US - go figure.

    • 1483 posts
    July 24, 2013 11:38 AM EDT

    There is no info on state of Europe in Fallout universe. The had been highly dependent on importing resources before the war, but other than that there is no info. So the game can easily take place there 

    • 189 posts
    July 24, 2013 2:18 PM EDT

    It makes sense to me. He's not talking about the amount of time between games within the franchise, he's talking about the amount of time between each Bethesda game. They tend to take around 3-4 years between each game. Also, for the sheer amount of content in Bethesda's games, the wait is totally fair IMO. There is simply not another dev team out there that comes close to the volume of material that Bethesda puts out with each release. I for one have spent well over 1000 hours in Skyrim, and probably in Bethesda's last three releases as well, and I am confident that I still haven't seen everything there is to see in any of their games.

    It took six years for Irrational Games to come out with their next game after Bioshock 1, and that game (while absolutely incredible) was good for about 15 hours of game play. Naughty Dog takes about 2.5 years between each release, and their games are good for maybe 20 hours in general. I can totally accept waiting 3-4 years between Bethesda releases, knowing that they'll be good for a thousand hours.

    • 856 posts
    July 24, 2013 5:43 PM EDT

    Well I'll retract (some of) my negative comments if they announce a 2014 release and consider myself fortunate.  But hell, they could throw us a bone every now and then.

    • 1483 posts
    July 24, 2013 6:34 PM EDT

    They just keep selling Fallout merchandise for now  Just posted on FB

    • 14 posts
    July 24, 2013 6:49 PM EDT

    I think what he was trying to say makes perfect sense, though I can see how easily it might allow for some confusion given it's conversational phrasing. Fallout fans have been waiting a long time for the next entry in that series, but we can't expect news on that to come so shortly after they finished working on Skyrim. So both descriptions referred to two different durations of time pretty accurately, and all I can offer of my opinion on the matter is...

    ...that there's no way in hell we're getting Fallout 4 this year or any time too soon, but I'm not mad in the slightest, because I have the utmost confidence that it will be the greatest game I've ever laid my hands on whenever it does come out. At this point it's pretty obvious that they're developing it for the next gen systems and taking their time to ensure it turns out as good as it possibly can, but it's also clear that hell yes they're now working on this game in full force and will drop the bomb on us only when said bomb is primed and ready to completely blow us away, Megaton style.

    I think your disdain for Mr. Hines is unwarranted though lol, as you're the one who seems to have misconstrued what he was trying to say and who can blame him for essentially informing us that they spent their time on Skyrim, are fully aware that we're hungry - no, ravenous - for the next Fallout, and that they will announce nothing until it's good and ready to meet our expectations. That's the kind of PR I want to see from a series and studio so esteemed. That's essentially a "Sorry you've had to wait so long now, and will have to wait a bit longer still, but it'll be worth it." I'm hyped.

    Of course I could be inferring too much myself here. But I have faith in them.

    • 1483 posts
    July 24, 2013 6:57 PM EDT

    What I personally dislike in their comments is that they make no claims about actually working on Fallout game. We know they have licensed Fallout 4, and we've got comments from Eric Dellums on his possible role as Three Dog. That's all. They could've at least said that the studio is working on Fallout 4, like Casey Hudson did with Mass Effect 4. I'm still exploring Skyrim though, and hope they won't release Fallout 4 before my exam in October, cause it'll result in me putting too much time in it (like in every Fallout game so far)!

    • 856 posts
    July 24, 2013 7:02 PM EDT

    I'm sick and I'm a total grizzly when I have a cold (I was sick when I wrote the original post).

    P. Hines has been irking me for some time though, just little comments here and there. But It was the 'year after year after year' comment that really rubbed me the wrong way and sent me over the edge (plus I wanted to generate some FO4 discussion, since I can't find any news).  As I said before, I will retract (most of) my negative comments if we get a 2014 release, but I'm not counting on it.

    • 773 posts
    July 24, 2013 7:04 PM EDT

    It's pretty clear that they had a small team working on Fallout 4 from just after Skyrim came out, and the rest of the team were switched from Skyrim to FO4 when they made the 'no more DLC announcement'

    I still think we'll get Fallout 4 in the Autumn ('Fall' for you Stateside people )

    The main reason I think that is that they'll be probably be looking to have Elder Scrolls VI in 2016 (five years on from Skyrim) and they'll need to crack on with Fallout 4 so they can then switch people over onto that project.

    It all does rather beg the question as to why Bethesda - a company that made an absolute shed load of money from Skyrim - doesn't hire enough people to be running with two major projects at once....

    • 1483 posts
    July 24, 2013 7:09 PM EDT

    That's what I wonder as well. With projects of that scale and success they could've afforded it I think. But I doubt they'll release the game alongside ESO - while not being developed by BGS it wouldn't be good marketing to make these games compete with each other

    • 18 posts
    July 24, 2013 7:14 PM EDT

    I love the fallout series dont get me wrong but if there smart..They will put all they have in this ESO game so that we dont tire of it I mean think of it the elder scrolls develop so well and is so filled with lore man they could go on and on and all the hard core fans like a lot of us would follow ever drooling wet step of the way. Gladly dishing out money hand and foot just to see whats next.

    • 856 posts
    July 24, 2013 7:19 PM EDT

    Bethesda Game Studios is not developing ESO - it is being developed (I think) by Zenimax Online Studios - different group of people.  Bethesda Softworks (not the same as the Game Studios) is publishing it. 

    I doubt we'll see both FO:4 and ESO released at the same time.  (ESO is scheduled for spring of 2014).

    • 189 posts
    July 24, 2013 7:20 PM EDT

    I doubt we'll see even an announcement for FO4 for a while yet, maybe not until 2014. Fall 2014 is about the soonest I'd expect the game to come out, with an announcement probably no earlier than Holiday 2013. Bethesda tends not to announce games until they have a release date they feel comfortable meeting. I'm sure they've already made a ton of progress on FO4, but they also have a long way yet to go.

    I think they prefer to keep the team small and concentrating on a single game because that's what has worked for them to this point. Also, splitting the team and/or expanding to create a second large dev team would presumably mean that they would need someone other than Todd Howard to be the project lead for one of the two titles. Todd is pretty much directly responsible for the bulk of Bethesda's success. They probably want to keep it that way, again, because that's what has worked for them for years now.

    • 106 posts
    July 24, 2013 9:45 PM EDT

    Imagine It on the Xbox One, or PS4, the graphics will be beautiful!!! And the laggy glitchyness hopefully will be gone, but then again.. It IS a Bethesda game. 

    • 189 posts
    July 24, 2013 9:53 PM EDT

    I wouldn't hold your breath. Until they ditch Gamebryo altogether, their games will probably continue to be held back by the same issues. Graphics and general performance may improve, but the engine is outdated, and simply tweaking and rebranding won't be enough to keep it up much longer.

    • 577 posts
    July 24, 2013 11:03 PM EDT

    I'm pretty optimistic that some kind of announcement will be made this year. Tbh, I thought we would hear something at E3! Even just a little 20sec "War...War never changes" with a panoramic shot of the wasteland or something e.g. Halo (whatever number you want to put here) trailer....

    It would be nice if they could get some sort of rhythm with the releases of TES and Fallout games. Like how the Olympics switch off every two years....so they're would be a new TES every four years and new Fallout every four years....

    Finger crossed! but I feel ya Rune