Fallout 5 Director Todd Howard Narrows Down Where the Game Will Take Place

Todd Howard, the longtime director at Bethesda Game Studios on The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Starfield, has shared some early details on the setting for Fallout 5. Currently, Howard and those at Bethesda are hard at work on The Elder Scrolls VI, which will be the studio’s next big release. Only after this will the focus then shift to Fallout 5, which means that the highly-anticipated sequel is still many years away. Despite this, Howard already has strong convictions about where the next Fallout game will be. 

In a discussion on the Kinda Funny Gamescast, Howard spoke about how the Fallout series has always been set within the United States. Although some fans have requested in the past that the series be taken to other countries, Howard says that he believes the setting of America is something that is intrinsically tied to Fallout. As a result, the studio has no plans to take Fallout 5 to another country or territory for the time being, which essentially confirms that the title will again be set in a destroyed region of the U.S. 

“My view is part of the Fallout schtick is on the Americana naivete and part of that,” Howard said. “And so, for us right now, it’s okay to sort of acknowledge some of those other areas. But our plan is to predominantly keep it in the U.S. I also like in any sort of world, I don’t feel the need to answer; it’s okay to leave mystery or questions. ‘What is happening in Europe? What is happening here?’ I think those are good things. In Elder Scrolls. everybody wants to go to these other specific lands. The worst thing you could do to mysterious land is remove the mysteriousness. Keep mysterious lands mysterious.”

Despite surely taking place in the same country, there are still many untapped areas within the United States that Bethesda has yet to explore in the Fallout series. Many of the earlier entries in the series were set on the West Coast, while Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 were each on the eastern side of the country. As a result, the entire middle portion of Fallout’s post-apocalyptic America has yet to be explored whatsoever, making it rife with storytelling opportunities for those at Bethesda. Wherever Fallout 5 ends up specifically taking place likely won’t be revealed for a very long time, though, as the game seems destined to arrive at some point after 2030.