One week after the deepest cuts in Xbox history, Bethesda Game Studios has published a note promising more Fallout than ever: Fallout 5 is in pre-production, Fallout 3 and New Vegas are being remastered, and Obsidian is heading back to the wasteland.

What's in the Note

The note, posted to Bethesda.net on Friday, calls Fallout "one of our biggest priorities today". The Elder Scrolls 6 remains the studio's primary development focus and, per GamesRadar's breakdown, is running on Creation Engine 3, while Fallout 5 has formally entered pre-production behind it. Fallout 76 gets a story expansion next year called Raven Rock, a prequel to Fallout 3, and Starfield keeps its post-launch support.

While we're not announcing any dates today, we have been working on remasters for both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.

The bigger surprise is buried in the middle: Obsidian, fresh from its own round of layoffs, is developing a new Fallout game in collaboration with Bethesda, as Nintendo Life notes. No dates were attached to anything. And asked by Windows Central whether The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 would skip PlayStation, Todd Howard said it is "too early to comment".

The Union Isn't Buying the Timing

The United Videogame Workers-CWA answered the announcement with a blunt "don't fall for it", arguing the note is built to pull attention away from the roughly 3,600 layoffs Microsoft pushed through its gaming division last week, including hundreds of roles across Bethesda, Obsidian and ZeniMax Online. The union's question is the obvious one: who exactly is left to build all of this?

Our Take

Every line in that note is something fans have begged for since 2015, which is exactly why the timing deserves side-eye. A Fallout 5 logo and two remasters of beloved RPGs cost a lot less than the institutional knowledge that walked out the door last week. We will happily replay New Vegas. We would just like to know who is being asked to rebuild it, and under what conditions.