Team Folon’s Dean Carter, project lead on the highly anticipated mod Fallout London, has opened up about how Bethesda’s upcoming Fallout 4 update impacted the studio, saying the team felt “blindsided” by the move.
Carter delved into how the Fallout developer’s next-gen update, which is set to release on April 25, has affected Folon’s development timeline during an interview with the BBC. He says his team had no communication from Bethesda when it came to the update’s release plans, resulting in the unforeseen delay of Fallout London. While the team pivots to account for a relatively substantial new update for Fallout 4, Folon is left wishing it had a heads-up.
“This is the thing: they randomly dropped it, that they were going to bring it out on the 25th of April. So that has, for lack of a better term, sort of screwed us over, somewhat,” Carter said.
Folon has been set to bring London to Fallout 4 for years. Although it’s unofficial, its popularity has positioned it as one of the most important game releases for the franchise since Fallout 76 launched in 2018. The mod was set to drop April 23, 2024, until Bethesda threw a wrench into the timeline by announcing earlier this month that its own update for Fallout 4 would drop just two days later. An official, somewhat important change to Fallout 4 is something Folon would have needed to account for during development, so when the update was announced without warning, Fallout London was delayed.
“We’ve signed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) with big companies. Why haven’t we done that?” Carter continued. “They could just say, ‘Well, look, this is when it’s due to come out. Maybe, get your PR in order, or talk to your fans, cage expectations, because this is what’s going to happen,’ rather than just blindsiding us out of nowhere, which is what has happened.”
@bbcnews Fallout London's lead developer has said they weren't told about Fallout 4's update this week which will delay their unofficial mod for the foreseeable future. #Fallout4 #FalloutLondon #Fallout #FalloutMods #Bethesda #Xbox #PlayStation #GamingTok #GamingNews #BBCNews ♬ original sound - BBC News
Bethesda’s Fallout 4 update adds improvements across PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S. The list of changes includes stability improvements and fixes, up to 60fps support, quest updates, and more. It’s a long-awaited update that many no doubt excited to dive into following the success of Season 1 of Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout series, but the lack of communication with Folon means that some fans will be left waiting.
“We need to talk to people so that we can know these things,” Carter added. “This has definitely snowballed. We see ourselves as just developers who sit around in our pajamas, quite frankly, to then have this big corporation where we get millions of views on YouTube videos, we’ve out performed some of their Fallout 76 announcements, which is another game that they’re doing that relates to the series. You’d think that they’d have at least had a conversation to just be like, ‘Look, you guys are clearly at least notable, you’re not official, but let’s make sure that we don’t ruin this for the fans.’ ”
He continued: “We’re doing this for the fans at the end of the day. The same fans, and this has just caused us to delay which hurts a lot of our team and our hard work for the past four years, and it’s let down a lot of fans. As a result, which we’ve seen from the backlash from the video, is that people are blaming Bethesda even though I’ve asked them not to. I think that’s inevitable when there’s that lack of communication. I just wish they had a conversation with us.”
Fallout London has no new released date. For more on the DLC-sized mod, be sure to read up on its recent cast addition, Neil Newbon. Newbon is best known as the voice of Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3 and plays an unannounced role in the upcoming mod.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
