Fallout 4

Fallout 4 is an upcoming game planned to be published by Bethesda Softworks.

Setting
Not much is known about the setting of Fallout 4 so far. When asked to give hints as to the setting of the next Fallout game, Jason Bergman said (translated from Norwegian), "You'll get no tips from me. But the Mojave Wasteland was a fun place to explore, wasn't it?" .

Development
Initially, in 2004, Bethesda licensed from Interplay the rights to create and publish three Fallout games (Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4). Later, in 2007, Bethesda purchased the entire franchise, and Interplay licensed back from Bethesda the rights to a Fallout MMORPG. There is currently a legal dispute underway in which Interplay claim that Bethesda breached their contract regarding Fallout Online, and so their later contract is null and void. If Interplay's counter-claim is successful, the companies would revert to their previous contract, whereby Bethesda only has the rights to publish one more Fallout game - Fallout 4.

In 2008, Bethesda's Pete Hines said: "The whole reason we went out and acquired the license and that we now own Fallout is that we clearly intended to make more than one". He also added: "This is not something we're going to do once and then go away and never do it again. When that will be or how long that will be God only knows, but we acquired it specifically because we wanted to own it and develop it and work on it like we do with The Elder Scrolls".

As of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bethesda has retired Gamebryo in favor of the new Creation engine, created in-house. It is possible, though unconfirmed, that this engine will also be used for Fallout 4.

Release date
In August 2010, Todd Howard revealed in an interview with Eurogamer that Bethesda was working on two projects; one had been in development for 2 years (beginning after Fallout 3 was released), and the other was still in pre-production. It's now known that the title farther along in development was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. There is still no confirmation on what the second game is, although Fallout 4: San Fransisco will be out Fall, 2012.

Past attempts
Black Isle Studios also planned to make a Fallout 4 after their Fallout 3 project was finished, but it was cancelled and the rights to the franchise were sold. Nothing is known about this earlier version of Fallout 4, except that Caesar's Legion was to play a big part in it.