Skip to main content

Fallout 4 is not taking your suggestions (and that’s a good thing!)

Fans may be eagerly speculating about and requesting new features for Fallout 4, Bethesda’s long-anticipated open world role-playing game, but the game is “basically done” with regards to new features, according to a recent interview that Bethesda VP Pete Hines had with Gamespot. The game’s mechanics were all more or less in place when it was announced just ahead of E3 2015, and between now and the November 11 release, Bethesda is focused entirely on fixing bugs and fine-tuning the experience.

“Let’s be honest, [right now] it doesn’t matter what anybody wants for a feature in Fallout 4,” explained Hines. “The game is basically done. It was by and large done before we announced it, in terms of the features going in. You’re not adding new features in May, June, July in the year you’re releasing; you’re trying to get everything fixed.”

Recommended Videos

By revealing the game in June for a November release, the firm was left with less than five months between the game’s announcement and when players get their hands on it, standing in stark contrast to the industry’s increasing tendency to start teasing and hyping games years in advance of when we even see anything resembling gameplay. A prime example of this is Final Fantasy XV, which was first announced in 2006 as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and is still scheduled for an unspecified 2015 release date, or Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs, which was announced in 2012, but did not see release until 2014.

Rather than building up impossible expectations based on early builds and concepts that might not pan out, Bethesda by pushing the announcement so close to release is able to promote a game that it has actually made, instead of a game that it intends to make.

This may disappoint players who have been conditioned by trends toward transparent development and early access to expect that creators will heed their opinions. However, by sticking to its guns, Bethesda avoids the risk of overextending itself and losing focus in an attempt to address the criticisms of players who haven’t actually played the game yet.

Greater feedback between players and developers has led to some fantastic things in gaming in recent years, but for something as large and complex as a Fallout game, there is a strong argument for trusting that the developers know better than we do how to do their jobs, and reserving judgment until we experience the result for ourselves.

The mutability of modern games through post-release patches and DLC means that it is easier than ever to make adjustments based on player feedback, so let’s just be patient until then.

Player feedback is of course still important to Bethesda, but based on their experience with previous Bethesda titles, they prefer post-release feedback to presumptive requests about an unreleased game. Game director Todd Howard told Game Informer how technical issues with Skyrim have informed the development process of Fallout 4. Hines also explained that the developers took very careful consideration of reviews and forum discussions about Fallout 3 and Skyrim when planning Fallout 4:

“All of that stuff is important. A good developer knows how to take all that and figure out how to address it,” Hines said. “You can do anything, you just can’t do everything. So you have to be able to prioritize and figure out what are the big wins, what are the challenges you’re going to tackle, and what are the things you just don’t have the bandwidth to take on.”

Fallout 4, the next chapter in the beloved series of post-apocalyptic role-playing games, is scheduled to arrive on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC on November 11, 2015.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Will Fulton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…
These 4 exciting indie games need to be on your radar this year
A man stares down a hallway in Post Trauma.

2025 is already odd to a heck of a start. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a hit, we’re loving Civilization 7, and Avowed is just around the corner. Those aren’t the games I’m most excited about, though. My favorites games of the past month and change are all independent releases that I didn’t see coming. Rift of the Necrodancer, Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist, and While Waiting are all sitting at the top of my list currently. While big budget games are exciting, you should never sleep on the indies -- especially because there are so many great ones coming soon.

Last week, I demoed four upcoming games from Raw Fury, most of which will launch soon. The publisher may not be a household name like Devolver, but it’s quietly given us plenty of fantastic indies over the past decade, from Sable to American Arcadia. This year, Raw Fury has a few games in the works that are worth keeping your eye on. That includes a creepy ode to Silent Hill, a medieval tactics game, and a serious game of the year contender. Don’t take your eyes off these four games.
Blue Prince
Blue Prince Announcement Trailer

Read more
Game exclusivity is dying, and that’s a good thing
Jim Ryan talks about PlayStation on stage at CES 2023.

Up until the current generation of video game consoles, each system was defined primarily by its exclusive games. We may call it the "console wars," but the battles have always been Mario vs. Sonic and Master Chief vs. Nathan Drake rather than Nintendo vs. Sega or PlayStation vs. Xbox. It was the games that drove people to buy one box over the other, and those have always driven a wedge in the gaming community. Few people had access to every console, so we felt the need to justify our choices by idolizing "our" exclusives and downplaying the competition's. For a long time, that tribalism helped console makers build a loyal fanbase to run a successful business on.

Exclusives make less and less sense in our modern era. They have always been anti-consumer to some extent, but now both first and third-party developers are wising up top the fact that the old business model needs to die in order for the industry to survive. We're currently witnessing the death of traditional exclusives and that's not a change you should fear.
Tearing down the walled garden
Exclusive games have always been a manipulative and predatory business practice for players. Those who could only afford to buy one console each generation would miss out on a whole library of games due to that choice. That, or they'd be forced to purchase an expensive piece of hardware to cover all their bases. This approach gave each console a distinct identity from its competitors but at the cost of FOMO and a hostile environment between fanbases. I believe everyone understands that exclusives have never been good for consumers on a basic level despite the segments of the audience that felt the need to crusade against one another on behalf of a major corporation that only cared about their dollars.

Read more
Ninja Gaiden 4: release window, trailers, gameplay, and more
Ryu in the rain and lightning in Ninja Gaiden 4.

With the return of so many classic series, such as Onimusha: Way of the Sword and Okami 2, Koei Tecmo didn't want to be left out. After over a decade since the last mainline entry, the infamous ninja Ryu Hyabusa is back, but he's not alone. Ninja Gaiden 4 was revealed at the top of 2025 and looks like a major evolution on the fast and brutal action the series pioneered. This upcoming video game isn't as far away as some other upcoming PS5 games and upcoming Xbox Series X games, so now's the perfect time to sharpen your blades to see what challenges await when it arrives.

Ninja Gaiden 4 isn't an upcoming Switch game, but there is a chance it could show up on the Switch 2.
Release window

Read more