Known for its excellent RPG titles, Bethesda Games Studios is one of the premier AAA studios working in the games industry. Up until the announcement of Starfield, Bethesda was primarily known for The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series. While it's been confirmed that The Elder Scrolls 6 is on its way at some point in the future, there haven't been any updates on what the future of Fallout might hold outside of more Fallout 76 expansions. While Fallout 76 definitely has its merits, it's safe to say that the game got off on the wrong foot with a lot of Fallout fans.
After its shaky launch, the series and Bethesda as a whole were put in some hot water as fans had had enough of the broken state that the studio sometimes launches its games in. There have been plenty of fixes, patches, and updates for Fallout 76 since its launch, putting it in a more playable and stable state. However, many fans of the series skipped the entry entirely as the MMORPG format, and the bugs that the game carried with it, just didn't appeal to them. It's for this reason that it makes sense for Bethesda to change things up for the future of the Fallout series and bring back the Fallout Tactics games before the release of Fallout 5.
A Change of Pace for the Fallout Franchise
In terms of genre, Fallout has seen some changes since its early days as an isometric CRPG. When Bethesda got its hands on the IP in 2004, the series gained a first-person perspective and began to have a much bigger emphasis on action than on the classic role-playing of games past. The series has seen some successful spin-off titles including Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout Shelter, and Fallout 76, but Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel seems like the kind of spinoff title that would really whet a lot of fans' appetites during the wait for Fallout 5.
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel is a tactical turn-based RPG that came out in 2001 and is akin to games like Final Fantasy Tactics or X-COM: UFO Defense. The game was almost entirely combat-focused unlike the previous entries in the Fallout series at the time and served as something of a change of pace for the series. If another Fallout Tactics game were to release today, it would likely also give the series a much-needed change of pace after Fallout 76.
By slowing things down for a more thoughtful, tactical experience and focusing on telling a smaller scale story set in the Fallout universe, a new Fallout Tactics could bring the series a breath of fresh air. It seems like that was potentially what Bethesda was hoping Fallout 76 might do, as the game diverted from the series' traditional format, but the issues that the game had at launch served as too much of a roadblock for fans.
Additionally, while Fallout 76 definitely changed things for the series, it wasn't enough of a shake-up as the moment-to-moment gameplay was still essentially the same as Fallout 4's. A complete change in genre for a single spin-off title might be exactly what fans need to get back into the series once more.
Looking Back at Fallout's Roots For the Future
The Fallout and Elder Scrolls series have gone together hand-in-hand since Fallout 3 was released in 2008. Because of the similarities that the two series share, Fallout is frequently described as "The Elder Scrolls, but with guns," and The Elder Scrolls as "Fallout, but high fantasy." As both franchises have continued receiving new entries, those comparisons have stayed relatively the same. However, now that Bethesda is adding a new franchise to its repertoire with Starfield, having three franchises that are extremely similar (only separated by setting) might make the games and their formulas feel stale.
One route that Bethesda might consider to combat that issue would be to change the focus so that there's some sort of diversity across their franchises in terms of gameplay or genre. Fallout already seems to be going in a different direction as exampled by Fallout 76, so the series seems like the perfect fit to receive a changeup. Change might come best by looking to the series' roots for inspiration, but more specifically by looking at Fallout Tactics.
As mentioned above, making a new Fallout Tactics game could be the change of pace that the series might need. Allowing the Fallout series as a whole to be a place for Bethesda to experiment, in terms of gameplay and genre, might do the studio and its games some good. Tactics is a great place to start as it's already pretty similar to the combat-focused gameplay of recent Fallout entries with the only key difference being its turn-based nature. That in itself, however, isn't even that far off from the V.A.T.S. system that Fallout 3, 4, and New Vegas have used, so it seems like the turn-based route is a good direction for the series to head with Fallout 5.
It's currently unclear what direction Bethesda is looking to take the Fallout franchise in. It seems unlikely that any news about Fallout 5 or any other possible spin-off titles is coming soon, as Bethesda is focused primarily on Starfield and, following its launch, will focus on The Elder Scrolls 6. Now that Bethesda has merged with Microsoft, it's possible that Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas, might work on another entry to follow up New Vegas. However, hopefully the near future of Fallout is spin-offs, as it seems like the series needs something of a breath of fresh air.