Let me make this clear before you keep on reading — I absolutely want remasters of both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. I love the Fallout franchise, and after seeing Skyrim remastered again and again, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with the best Fallout games being left to gather dust on older consoles. They deserve an Oblivion-level overhaul just as much as any Elder Scrolls project… though this is exactly why I haven’t been looking at the odd Steam behavior with hype, but rather a feeling of concern.
For those who have been out of the loop in regard to the latest Fallout remaster rumors, some strange Steam discoveries seemingly lent credibility to the rumors that Bethesda is actively working on remasters of both Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Specifically, Steam showed that there are 12 Fallout games available on the platform, yet only 10 are actually visible. This saw players theorizing that the two hidden games were remasters of Fallout 3 and New Vegas, with the other odd behavior being an inability to leave user reviews for either game because they have not been released yet according to Steam. Though the review message remains odd, users have noted that there are separate versions of Fallout 3 and New Vegas for CIS countries, which is likely the reason for the two hidden games. This suggests that, while the remasters may indeed be real, they likely aren’t hidden on Steam for a double release. And honestly, I’d be relieved if that were the case.
Why A Double Release For Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3 Would Be a Bad Sign
After the impressive overhaul Oblivion received last year, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3 fans will undoubtedly have similar expectations for the remakes of their beloved games. All the expansions — some of which are better than the base game content in the eyes of some players — would be a must, as would a huge graphical overhaul on par with what Oblivion received. Mods for New Vegas in particular would be hugely desirable, too, with the lack of mod support being a glaring flaw in the otherwise stellar Oblivion Remastered. However, it doesn’t make any sense for such extensive overhauls to drop together or even within months of each other, and in my eyes, that’s for the best.
First and foremost, there’s the business perspective. Why would Bethesda put so much time and resources into two separate remasters only to drop them at the same time? Surely it would want to launch the games separately to maximize profits, getting players to pay full price for the remastered classics and all their expansions. Even if they could be bought separately, there would surely be a bundle if they were released at or near the same time, kneecapping profits. This is only one of the reasons why both games dropping together doesn’t add up, with another being that while a Fallout 3 remaster has been rumored for years (there are court documents essentially proving it’s real), leaks about a New Vegas overhaul are far more recent. Since it surely would have had to be started recently, a potential New Vegas remaster is likely far off.
Those hoping for a New Vegas remaster anytime soon are likely expecting it because of the Amazon series exploring the titular setting. While that would have made sense, realistically, it will likely come out a fair bit after the Fallout 3 remaster that’s rumored for 2026.
As for why this expected gap between Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas is a good thing in my eyes, it’s primarily because it guarantees each game can be fleshed out and high quality. When the theories of a double-remaster drop started to spread, I immediately sighed, because to me, that suggested far more basic remasters than something like Oblivion. I instantly pictured the HD collections for franchises like Jak and Daxter, with Fallout 3 and New Vegas getting very slight visual improvements but staying largely the same. To me, that’d be a huge letdown after years of waiting, as that kind of port could have happened a decade ago for the PS4 and Xbox One. It’s much more feasible for an Oblivion-level Fallout 3 remaster to release in 2026, with a high-quality version of New Vegas following in 2027 or 2028. And not only would a gap between the remasters make it more likely for them to be major remasters instead of borderline ports, but it would benefit the Fallout community as a whole.
A Double Release of Fallout’s Big Remasters Would Miss Some Obvious Opportunities
As a Call of Duty Zombies fan, I’ve seen what happens when a series I love gets too much content at once. When the divisive Black Ops 4 released, it did so with four Zombies maps. Though this seemed like a dream come true at the time, it was anything but. Not only did so much content seemingly spread Treyarch’s QA testers too thin, as there were huge issues with crashes and bugs in the first month of BO4’s life, but the community was instantly split between the maps. Instead of working together to solve secrets on one or two maps, exploring them to their fullest, players honed in on some and left others half-explored, leaving secrets to be found years later than they should have been. There was no sense of unity in the community, with players butting heads over which maps were best and ignoring certain content, with the Chaos story going underappreciated by most since fans of the long-running Aether story cared more about a conclusion than a fresh start.
Essentially, I could see this exact scenario playing out if both Fallout remasters dropped at the same time. It would renew the annoyingly toxic Fallout 3 vs. New Vegas rivalry, which has lingered but largely died down in recent years. New players could feel pressured to get through both of the games, failing to properly explore each and see all that they have to offer, which is the best part about Bethesda RPGs. Remasters present an opportunity to sneak in new secrets or restore things like the cut New Vegas content, and all players should be able to focus on discovering and enjoying those additions instead of jumping right into them after playing another Fallout game, as that risks burnout. Add on the fact that not every player has the money to spend on two remasters that will likely be full-priced (especially if they include all the expansions), and it’s clear that there would be several benefits to giving each Fallout remaster significant breathing room.
Fallout’s Remasters Can Be Perfect Timekillers in the Lead-Up to Fallout 5
Yet perhaps the biggest reason I’d argue for space between the two Fallout remasters is that I want the wait for Fallout 5 to be less grim. With The Elder Scrolls 6 still being worked on, as far as we know, it’ll be 2030 at the earliest before Fallout 5 releases. Now, with this estimate in mind, let’s say that both the Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters drop in 2026. If that happens, then we’d be looking at another boring four-year drought. Sure, it’s not quite as painful as the 7 years of waiting we’ve been enduring since Fallout 76 released, but it still wouldn’t be fun, and it still shouldn’t happen since it can easily be avoided. Giving players a Fallout 3 remaster this year, letting them thoroughly enjoy it until late 2027 or 2028, then dropping a New Vegas remaster would be a perfect way to spread out Fallout games and keep fans busy until Fallout 5 finally arrives.
An ideal (and realistic) 5-year-plan for Fallout is as follows:
- 2026: Fallout 3 Remastered
- 2027: Fallout Season 3 and a major Fallout 76 update (plus mods for Fallout 3, if it supports them)
- 2028: Fallout: New Vegas Remastered
- 2029: Fallout Season 4 and a major Fallout 76 update (plus mods for Fallout: New Vegas, if it has support for them)
- 2030: Fallout 5
After some truly brutal years for Fallout fans, there are finally reasons to be optimistic about the future that go beyond the promise of an eventual Fallout 5. I certainly am excited about the prospect of Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters being on the horizon; they’re undoubtedly classics, but they’re also showing their age and are difficult sells for any gamers who need good visuals and smooth combat to be immersed. I want both of these remasters to check every box and be the best they can be, and beyond that, I want everyone to have the time to fully appreciate each remaster and the work that went into making them. Releasing them closely together would be a mistake for the wide range of reasons discussed above, so I’m almost glad that the “missing Fallout games on Steam” theory has essentially been debunked. Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are my most desired remasters, so hopefully, Bethesda exhausts every resource to make them all they can be.
