Fallout 4 "pretty close to being done"

Fallout 4 Behemoth

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To the surprise of pretty much everyone, Bethesda announced at E3 that Fallout 4 will be out on November 10, forgoing the extended, sometimes years-long pre-launch campaigns we usually see with big game releases. Pete Hines, Bethesda's VP of PR and Marketing, told GamesRadar it was able to pull off that particular mic drop moment because the game is "pretty close to being done."

That shouldn't come as any great surprise; as Hines himself pointed out, if you say you're going to ship a game like Fallout 4 in five months, it better be just about finished. But he also said that the studio was confident it could get away with such a small window in which to promote the game because it was already such a hype magnet.

"If we didn’t feel like that was enough time to generate the excitement that we expected and the interest that we wanted, then we would have announced it earlier," he said. "So part of it is because we felt like it was a big enough title that we could get away with it."

That too makes sense. A new Fallout was clearly in the works—game studios don't just abandon their biggest franchises—and there were enough fake teases (one or two of which were very convincing) kicking around that Bethesda could leave that kind of low-level buzz generation to the fan base. After all, why get in the way of a self-sustaining PR campaign—especially if you're having a good time? "It’s really fun to get this far into development and not say anything and then go 'Boo! Here’s all this stuff. Here’s what we’re up to'," Hines said. "Which isn’t even all the full monty, it's just a big wide picture."

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.