With E3 just around the corner, Bethesda is the latest developer to jump on the tease bandwagon and publish a suitably titillating Twitter post hinting at an upcoming announcement.
The post was made late yesterday and is accompanied by a GIF consisting of the classic Fallout-style start of broadcast TV test pattern that we’ve grown accustomed to. The grainy image gently jitters around with ‘Please Stand By’ plastered across the middle of the screen. The post itself sports a #PleaseStandBy hashtag, but nothing else.
#PleaseStandBy pic.twitter.com/5IUjkURCcM
— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) May 29, 2018
Confirmation that the tease does indeed relate to Fallout seems to have been confirmed by a simultaneous stream on Bethesda Twitch channel, which is still up at the time of publication. It depicts the same image as Twitter, though broadcast onto an actual Television, with a statuette of head-bobbling Vault Boy in the foreground giving the infamous thumbs up.
The stream is also peppered with strange interruptions ranging from an energetic thumbs up appearing on screen, a woman walking through the set to release balloons, a plush head popping in momentarily, and a dabbing puppet, to a checkered shirt-clad gentleman strolling through only to realize he is on screen and promptly leaving. There a many others and you can check them out here
Other than a veritable deluge of The Office-themed GIF responses and a steady 140,000 viewers currently watching Bethesda’s channel, the reaction has been one of unbridled excitement and wild speculation. The most promising hypotheses gravitate around a possible Fallout 3 remake. This is backed up by the Fallout-heavy references in the tease, Fallout 3’s ten year anniversary falling this year and Bethesda’s tendency to reissue its most successful titles.
Otherwise, Fallout 5 is inevitable at some point so cannot be discounted completely. Finally, Bethesda have had a spin-off mobile project in the works for a while now so it may in fact relate to this. Possibly, a release in the vein of the excellent Fallout Shelter.
Regardless, something more concrete seems imminent and will more than likely come from Bethesda’s stream. We will of course keep our eyes peeled and report back if something does indeed happen.
