Bethesda may have stole the show on the eve of E3, rolling out a steady stream of information relating to Fallout 4 all the while locking down the RPG sequel for a worldwide release on November 10. How and ever, if you’re expecting to be inundated with marketing for the open-world title, you may be disappointed (relieved?), as the studio now plans to keep the game’s story under wraps until it hits store shelves.
It’s for this reason that the developer doubled down on the myriad of features we can expect in Fallout 4 back in June, as opposed to revealing too much about the narrative. According to Pete Hines, Bethesda’s VP of PR and Marketing, this is a strategy the company plans to uphold for the next few months.
Here’s what the executive had to share in an interview with IGN.
I would be stunned if we said anything else about the story ever again [prior to launch in November]. We’re going to let everybody experience that in the game as much as possible. But there are certain trade-offs you have to make to build some amount of awareness to what the game is offering, so you’re willing to make some sacrifices.
Flying in the face of convention, Bethesda didn’t formally confirm the sequel’s release date until the timing was deemed right, leaving a shorter lead time between announcement and release. Hines says this approach is fully supported by Game Director Todd Howard, who wanted to wait as long as possible before revealing the due date of Fallout 4 in order to perfect the various and complex game systems lurking beneath the arid, post-apocalyptic aesthetic.
“If you ask Todd he’d probably prefer like a week or even a day between announce and launch,” Hines said. “He tends to hate showing his stuff before it’s out because he’s a bit of a perfectionist and it takes a lot of time away from making the game to work on demos or presentations.”
All will be answered when Bethesda releases Fallout 4 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on November 10.
