This week, Bethesda made it clear that Fallout is the future. Todd Howard dropped the most comprehensive franchise roadmap in Bethesda's history, Palworld proved its 1.0 launch was no fluke by pulling nearly a million concurrent Steam players, and two major titles are landing before next Sunday. Here is the full wrap.

Bethesda Drops the Biggest Fallout Roadmap in Franchise History

On July 17, Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard published a lengthy statement outlining the studio's full future roadmap. The Fallout section alone is enough to keep RPG fans busy reading for the rest of the week.

Four separate Fallout projects are now confirmed. First, remasters of both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are officially in development. Bethesda has not announced release dates or shared gameplay details, but Howard's statement explicitly confirmed that work is underway on both. Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters have been rumoured for years, and this is the first time the studio has publicly acknowledged they are real.

Second, Obsidian Entertainment's new Fallout project is officially confirmed. The collaboration between Obsidian and Bethesda Game Studios was reported by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier on July 8, and Bethesda has now made it official. Josh Sawyer, the director of Fallout: New Vegas and Pentiment, is leading the project. No title, setting, or release window has been shared. This is a separate project from Fallout 5, and separate again from Bethesda's own mainline development. Fallout creator Tim Cain also returned to Obsidian as a full-time employee late last year, which adds further weight to what the studio is building.

Third, Fallout 5 is confirmed to have entered pre-production. Elder Scrolls VI is Bethesda's current primary development focus, but Howard confirmed that both Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout 5 are now being built on Creation Engine 3, the shared technology platform the studio has been developing internally. Fallout 5 remains a long way out, but its pre-production confirmation is meaningful after years of it being referred to only as a future priority.

The fourth announcement covers Fallout 76. A major expansion called Raven Rock is planned for next year, framed as a prequel to Fallout 3 set before the bombs fell. For the Fallout 76 community, this is the largest story content announcement the game has received in some time.

The roadmap arrived less than two weeks after Xbox's 3,200-person restructure, and the timing is deliberate. Fallout is one of Xbox's largest and most recognisable franchises, and this announcement signals clearly where the company intends to concentrate its resources following the reset.

Palworld 1.0 Pulls 855,000 Concurrent Steam Players

Palworld launched version 1.0 on July 10 and by the weekend of July 12, it had peaked at 855,525 concurrent Steam players, according to SteamDB. That figure places it inside Steam's all-time top 15 concurrent peaks, sitting just below Baldur's Gate 3's record of 875,343 and above Battlefield 6's all-time peak of 747,440.

To put the number in context: Palworld's 1.0 peak is the second highest the game has ever reached. Its all-time record from Early Access launch in January 2024 still stands at 2.1 million concurrent players, which at the time made it Steam's second-most-played game ever behind only PUBG: Battlegrounds. Most survival games never come close to approaching their Early Access peak again. Palworld did it within 18 months of full release.

The 1.0 update itself is substantial. It adds 72 new Pals, the World Tree endgame zone, a reworked story, 13 new weapons, wave-based raid content, aquatic base building, and the Wing Pack glider. The game hit 40 million total players across all platforms at the time of launch. Pocketpair confirmed the price has remained at its Early Access level with no increase for the full release.

The Nintendo lawsuit situation has also developed. After a settlement earlier this year, Nintendo narrowed its remaining claims to cover only older pre-patch versions of Palworld from before November 2024, versions the current player base does not run. The result has not visibly affected the community's enthusiasm for the 1.0 launch.

This Week: Splatoon Raiders and Halo Campaign Evolved Both Drop

Splatoon Raiders launches July 23 exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2. This is the first Splatoon game built primarily around a single-player story experience rather than multiplayer competition. The Deep Cut trio return in a narrative role, and the game supports up to four-player co-op. For Switch 2 owners who picked up the console at launch, this is one of the most anticipated first-party titles of the year.

Halo: Campaign Evolved arrives July 28 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and is the first Halo game ever to release on a PlayStation platform. The ground-up rebuild in Unreal Engine 5 covers the original ten missions of Halo: Combat Evolved plus Operation: METEORITE, a brand new three-mission prequel arc developed exclusively for this release. Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers get day-one access at no additional cost. For PS5 players who have heard about Halo for 25 years without a way to play it, July 28 is the date.

The Loadout

Whether you are deep in Palworld's new World Tree content, watching the Fallout roadmap and trying to work out how to fill the years until New Vegas Remastered arrives, or counting down to Halo on July 28, the sessions are getting serious. Buffs was built for exactly this. Fully dosed, made in Sydney, and shipped fast with no import delays. Use code [NEVERPUNISHED] for $10 off your first 40-serve tub.