As one of Bethesda's biggest and most beloved series, it's not much of a revelation to hear the company is already mulling over a new Fallout instalment, but studio director Todd Howard has now talked a little about a potential new series entry, confirming that while an idea exists, Fallout 5 is still a long way off.

Speaking to IGN as part of a Skyrim 10th anniversary retrospective, Howard explained that currently the studio has a "one-pager" for Fallout 5, outlining what it wants to do with the series. However, sci-fi adventure Starfield, due to release next year, and The Elder Scrolls 6 - which was still in its design phase as of June this year - remain the studio's priority, meaning it could be years before work on the next Fallout begins in earnest.

When asked about the possibility of shifting responsibility for a new Fallout over to another studio - after all, Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian is now also within the Xbox Game Studios family - Howard only offered that "Fallout's really part of our DNA here".

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The pandemic has ravaged the theatre industry across the world - but one group of intrepid Fallout 76 players came up with a cool idea to help the show go on.

The Theatre Company, a theatre troupe that operates within the world of Fallout 76, staged a production of Macbeth live in-game, and streamed it on Twitch with the help of machinima experts Fallout Five-0.

One member of the team designed a theatre inside the game that was modelled after Shakespeare's Globe, calling it The Grafton Globe theatre. Others worked on lighting and sound design. The script, which was adapted to come in at under 40 minutes, was performed live by a group of actors, with lines delivered over proximity chat as the characters acted scenes out in real time.

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Fallout 76's Fallout Worlds update has launched.

Fallout Worlds adds two new modes: Custom Worlds for Fallout 1st members and Public Worlds designed by Bethesda and available to all Fallout 76 players.

The Fallout Worlds launch trailer is below:

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Fallout 3's The Pitt hits Fallout 76 in 2022.

The Pitt was the second add-on for Fallout 3, Bethesda's 2008 sci-fi role-playing game. It was an atmospheric setting that depicted post-nuclear Pittsburgh.

The Pitt arrives as an Expedition for Fallout 76. It's a free update that will, for the first time, take players outside of Appalachia. Expeditions are story driven, repeatable missions to various locales in the Fallout universe - starting with The Pitt in 2022. The trailer is below:

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Fallout 76 will bin its battle royale mode in a few months, Bethesda has announced.

In a blog post, Bethesda said the Nuclear Winter mode will come to an end in September.

Explaining the decision, Bethesda said Nuclear Winter had suffered from a lack of players, which meant it had become difficult to create full lobbies in a reasonable matchmaking time.

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Rescue operations seem to be rather popular across gaming communities at the moment, as along with Valheim's very own unit of body recovery specialists, a modder has brought Fallout 76's Responders faction to Fallout 4.

The Commonwealth Responders mod, made by TU3SD4Y, adds a total of 28 new quests, 27 new outfits, 30 buildable items and 52 buildable signs to Fallout 4 - all themed around the Responders faction, of course.

The story focuses on the last surviving member of the Commonwealth Responders, who needs your help to rebuild the Responders from the ground up. (The Responders is a volunteer relief organisation introduced in Fallout 76, if you need a refresh.) The mod even comes with a snazzy trailer, which you can watch below:

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Microsoft has created a new subsidiary called Vault to merge with ZeniMax as part of its proposed takeover of the company.

A document posted on the European Commission's website reveals Microsoft's plan to secure approval for its $7.5bn acquisition of ZeniMax:

"The concentration is accomplished by way of a merger pursuant to which a newly created Microsoft subsidiary ('Vault') will be merged with and into ZeniMax."

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Fallout 76 has today received a substantial update that increases the game's stash limit.

The multiplayer-focused post-apocalyptic adventure has struggled with its stash limit ever since it launched back in November 2018. Players - particularly those focused on building bases - have long called for Bethesda to up the limit in order to make playing more efficient. It didn't help that Bethesda gave Fallout 1st subscribers unlimited scrapbox space for crafting components.

Today's update increases the stash limit by 50 per cent to a maximum of 1200 pounds. Other welcome changes include the addition of three new tabs in your inventory: new, armour and food/drink. These should help you stay on top of all the gear you've been collecting.

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Wheelchairs are now available as C.A.M.P. decorations in Fallout 76 after a Bethesda employee spotted a request on the game's subreddit.

In a message entitled "Please sweet Beth, give me a wheelchair", Kel Leunen reached out to the development team, stating: "I'm disabled irl and I would really REALLY love a wheelchair I can place in my C.A.M.P. It would make me so happy to have that little piece of me in my creations. And I think a lot of other people would enjoy it too (maybe for when you recreate a hospital/medbay)".

After the usual back and forth in the comments, Kel later updated their message to say: "Another edit: for people playing 'devil's advocate'; I'm asking for a furniture item which model already exists in game. I'm not asking for my character to turn disabled, I'm asking for a chair I can place in my camp, we already have loads of chair models.

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Fallout 76's much-anticipated Steel Dawn update, which introduces the Brotherhood of Steel faction to Appalachia, was originally scheduled to launch on 1st December - but those who logged in yesterday may have found themselves checking the date. That's because the whole update has now been released early, and it's all due to an error which caused Xbox players to download the update a week ahead of schedule.

As explained in a blog post, not only did the error cause Fallout 76 players on Xbox to download the update early, it also prevented them from actually playing the game, making the situation a little more urgent. It seems Bethesda considered simply reverting the update and making everyone wait another week, but settled on bringing the launch forward instead. "We immediately investigated ways to get our Xbox players back in-game as soon as possible, but, through our discussions, the entire BGS team felt confident that Steel Dawn is ready to go," Bethesda said yesterday. "As a result, instead of rolling back the update and making everyone wait another week, we've decided to release the Steel Dawn Update on all platforms."

Along with the introduction of Brotherhood of Steel content, the update brings a welcome change to how hunger and thirst works: negative effects from these conditions have been removed, while being well-fed or hydrated will now give you a bigger buff, meaning these mechanics will be a little less punishing. A couple of the changes listed in the patch notes, such as dynamic bundles (which means bundle prices will be reduced for players who already own some of the items they contain) will not go live until the intended release date of 1st December. You can find the in-depth patch notes over here.

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