A new update has been released for the nine-year-old video game Fallout 4, the first of its kind for the hit title since 2017.
This follows the massive success of the TV show Fallout, which this month became the most-watched show on Amazon Prime Video, surpassing both The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm.
Game publisher Bethesda has released free next-gen iterations for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, to improve graphics, frame rates and fix bugs.
PlayStation gamers are the biggest winners from the update, as the Xbox Series same effect.
The release of the TV show propelled Fallout game titles into the best-selling category on the PC gaming platform Steam, with two Fallout games in the top 10 best-selling games, with Fallout New Vegas even beating Call of Duty Warzone (which is free). ), at the time of writing.
HBO’s hit The Last Of Us, based on Sony Interactive Entertainment’s platinum intellectual property, raised the bar for future game adaptations, but producers breathed a sigh of relief when preliminary reviews were universally praised. positive.
The franchise is a crown jewel of publisher Bethesda, which was bought by Xbox in a $7.5 billion (£6 billion) acquisition in 2021. Other popular titles include The Elder Scrolls and their latest release Starfield.
The story of Fallout begins in 1997, when the first version was released by a North American publisher, Interplay, on Windows MS-DOS, to critical acclaim and successful sales.
Fallout 2 followed a year later (developed in a third of the time of its predecessor) to equally positive reception and was considered a worthy successor.
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The award-winning move to 3D
The very first 3D version was released in 2008 following the partial sale of Fallout IP to Bethesda, in the form of Fallout 3.
It broke the sales records of its two predecessors in just the first week and received exceptional reviews across the board.
By the end of the following year, Fallout 3 had won several awards and, in 2012, was on display in The Art of Video Games exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, giving the franchise a permanent place in the public’s cultural consciousness .
The notable spin-off Fallout: New Vegas was released shortly after, quickly establishing itself as a fan favorite. Following the release of the TV show, New Vegas currently outperforms Diablo IV, Elden Ring, and Grand Theft Auto V on Steam.
Fallout 4 released in 2015 to mixed but largely positive reception, introducing new features such as base building and managed to please a majority of players.
The Brotherhood of Steel in the Fallout series. Photo: Amazon/Everett/Shutterstock
A “historically bad” and “useless” exit
Bethesda then released Fallout 76.
The first 3D multiplayer outing ever released for Fallout also proved to be its most controversial.
This sparked criticism from the press and players. Game-breaking bugs, an initial lack of content, and poor design – coupled with a fanbase more accustomed to the single-player format, made it a victim of review-bombing. Forbes called it a “historically bad launch”, while the Guardian called it “useless”.
Imperfect game launches can seriously damage reputations, as evidenced by titles such as No Man’s Sky, Star Wars Battlefront II, and Cyberpunk 2077. Since then, all three games have largely rehabilitated themselves, although a stigmatizing miasma remains.
Renewal
Thanks to Prime Video’s television adaptation, the same thing happened to Fallout 76.
The TV series enticed players to try it once again, leading them to experience the updates, bug fixes, and content releases that significantly improved Fallout 76 in the eyes of many fans and led to recent positive player reviews.
At the time of writing, Fallout 76 holds the eighth best-selling position on Steam, beating out the award-winning Baldur’s Gate 3, EA Sports FC 24, and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III. At its peak this week, the game had one million active players across all platforms, the highest number since its release.
It might surprise some to learn that Fallout 5 is planned for seven to ten years, although some industry voices speculate that Microsoft could use the series’ success to justify ordering an interim installment between- time to capitalize on the surprisingly high levels. of public interest.
Fallout Show is a proof of concept
The television success of Fallout is proof that companies can capitalize on (and sometimes rehabilitate) the public awareness of their franchises – the box office hit Barbie film is another example.
Games, like toys, will likely continue to spawn more film adaptations, with The Last Of Us and Fallout receiving second seasons, while Bob the Builder, Polly Pocket and Barney The Dinosaur will all be immortalized in films.
Video games are arguably even easier to adapt for television given that the narratives and worlds are pre-existing, as opposed to the arduous work of inventing completely original storylines for Bob and his fellow construction workers.
However, which gaming franchise will get the next TV treatment remains to be seen, by gamers and non-gamers alike.
