The Igloo — Bethesda finally shows its hand: Fallout 5, two remasters, and Obsidian's wildcard
Bethesda lanzó su roadmap más claro hasta ahora: Fallout 5 en preproducción, remasters de Fallout 3 y New Vegas en desarrollo, Obsidian construyendo un nuevo juego de Fallout, y The Elder Scrolls 6 confirmado. Además: Marathon pierde a su director de juego, ZA/UM despide a 32 trabajadores dos meses después de lanzar su juego, y Stardew Valley invade Magic: The Gathering.
Thursday, July 17, 2026. Bethesda just opened the vault — and there is a lot inside.
The lead · Bethesda's full hand: Fallout everywhere, Elder Scrolls 6 confirmed, and Obsidian's wildcard
This is a big day to be a Bethesda fan. Todd Howard sat down with multiple outlets and confirmed the most complete franchise roadmap the studio has ever put on the record.
Here is what is real, as of today:
- Fallout 5 is in preproduction. It is happening.
- Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas remasters are in development — the rumors were right.
- Obsidian Entertainment is building a brand-new Fallout game, separate from Fallout 5.
- The Elder Scrolls 6 is confirmed "on the way." Howard said the team "loves how it looks" and is "playing it every day."
- Starfield is not being abandoned — Bethesda confirmed 17 million players, a Starborn DLC in 2027, and a pledge of continued support.
- Fallout 76 is getting a massive expansion.
The Obsidian piece deserves its own beat. Fans have been speculating about a second team on Fallout for years — the New Vegas nostalgia is real and constant. Howard addressed the chatter about a supposed "rivalry" between Bethesda and Obsidian directly, calling it "fan chatter," and Game Developer reported his framing: "the timing is right" for a collaboration. So the storyline is officially a non-story, and the game is officially a thing.
Why this matters to players
The honest answer is that Fallout 5 is still years away — preproduction means no release window, no screenshots, and a lot of Elder Scrolls 6 still to build first. That wait is real and long.
What changes today is the "what do I play in the meantime" question. Fallout 3 and New Vegas on modern hardware — presumably with updated performance and QoL — is a direct answer. Two of the most beloved entries in the series, no mods required to keep them running. That is a meaningful thing even if the timeline slips.
The Obsidian game is the wildcard. Obsidian made New Vegas in 18 months under contract in 2010. With proper time and budget, and a team that knows the Fallout design language deeply, that project is the one worth watching.
The industry angle
There is something notable about Bethesda putting this much on the record at once. For years, big studios have guarded their roadmaps tightly — announce when you are close, not when you are far. Howard is doing the opposite here. He is telling players: here is the queue, here is the order, here is who is working on what. It manages expectations at the cost of a long public wait, but it also stops the "is Elder Scrolls 6 dead" discourse cold.
Whether the timeline holds is a different question entirely.
Sources: IGN · Rock Paper Shotgun · VGC · Eurogamer · Game Developer
Marathon loses its game director
Marathon Game Director Joseph Ziegler has left Bungie, Polygon, IGN, and GameSpot all confirmed today. The studio called it "a tumultuous time," which is accurate — Bungie has seen significant leadership and staff churn over the past two years, and Marathon launches this summer.
The timing is rough in both directions. Ziegler was one of the key creative voices on a game that still has to prove itself on release. And Rock Paper Shotgun separately reported that Marathon is running an experimental PvE roguelite mode for only two weeks when it drops — a puzzling choice for a live-service game still building an audience. You want players to try new modes and stick around. A two-week window does the opposite.
Bungie has been through enough that each individual departure is harder to read in isolation. But the game launches soon, and the people steering it keep changing.
Source: Polygon · IGN · Rock Paper Shotgun
ZA/UM lays off 32 workers — two months after shipping
ZA/UM Studios, the studio behind Disco Elysium, just laid off up to 32 employees. The game they released two months ago was Zero Parades: For Dead Spies.
Two months. The team ships, and then the team shrinks.
This is not a unique pattern in games — studios hire up for production and cut after release, and it happens at indie level and AAA level alike. But it does not get easier to read. The people who spent years building the game are the ones who find out in an email that the launch was the last thing.
ZA/UM has had its own complicated history — the original Disco Elysium creators left the studio under contentious circumstances in 2022, before Zero Parades was finished. What the studio is now, and what it is building toward, is genuinely unclear.
Source: Game Developer
One more thing
Stardew Valley is now in Magic: The Gathering. The Midnight Jellies superdrop landed this week, meaning you can build a deck around turnips, fishing, and Haley from the Stardew Valley card set. For reference, a Palworld card game drops July 30, and the first Pokémon TCG Live expansion is also live. Card games about games are having a moment. Somethings never change.
Source: IGN
Sources: IGN · Rock Paper Shotgun · Eurogamer · VGC · Game Developer · Polygon · GameSpot