The Impact Factor

Nuclear Bomb: The Fallout Effect

Article

Abstract: Fallout 4 was one of the year’s most anticipated games before it was even officially announced. The game profoundly commanded the narrative of the industry: fans and critics alike. Fallout is part of a small, elite group of IPs that are able to elicit a reaction so strong it defines the present and future of gaming. But why Fallout? What made these IPs so impactful? I argue it comes down to four things: peerlessness, developer trust, chronology, and nostalgia.

Not many games are the biggest release of the year before they’re even officially announced. In fact, the number of titles could probably be counted on one hand. The thought of one of these games gets critics giddy, YouTubers shouting from the mountaintops, and fans foaming at the mouth. It’s a strange and fascinating phenomenon of the video game industry. A select few titles hit like a nuclear bomb. Only a few IPs can elicit such an effect. 2015 saw the release of one of these infamous titles: Fallout 4.

Fallout 4 is a game everyone saw coming. Bethesda Softworks had been quiet for quite some time following the release of their previous title, Skyrim. Speculation, and excitement, had been running rampant in the months (even years) leading up to the game’s official teaser. You had forums claiming they found websites about the game, alleged former Bethesda employees ‘leaking’ information, and fake screenshot after fake screenshot. So it should come as no surprise that Fallout 4 was a hit before anything was even shown. The moment that the “Please Stand By” site was posted, everyone already knew what his or her most anticipated game of the year was. No contest.

'Please Stand By': Fallout is going to be foremost in your mind
 from June through the end of the year.

This excitement dominated the narrative of the industry’s biggest event: the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). It was no small feat. In my several years of follow E3 coverage, the ‘biggest’ game is almost always some surprise announcement. Like Watch Dogs or The Division from E3’s past. Or if we took at look at this year’s E3, a game like the Final Fantasy 7 Remake or Horizon Zero Dawn. But that was not the case this year. Fallout 4 dominated. Fallout 4 released their first trailer two weeks before the show. It showed fans exactly what they wanted to see: the game was more of the Fallout they know and love. By the time E3 2015 got rolling, Fallout 4 was (mostly) a known entity. The game was shown off in a substantial way at Bethesda’s Sunday night press conference. The on-stage demo showcased improvements to the base game systems, new gameplay modes, improved graphical fidelity, and the semi-unexpected confirmation that Fallout 4 would release this fall. When it came time to give conference awards, Fallout 4 cleaned up shop. In spite of not announcing the game at the event, and showing what everyone pretty much expected, Fallout 4 ignited an excitement that only a precious few IPs can muster.

E3's game of the show could have easily been Horizon or The Last Guardian or
FF7 Remake. But for most, it was Fallout 4.

The Fallout effect continued well into the Fall as we neared the game’s November 10^th release. New releases were big, but none of them were Fallout. You found this everywhere. Critics would say how much they loved playing Metal Gear Solid V or Until Dawn, but in the very next breath mention how they’re still eagerly awaiting Fallout. Some of the fall’s biggest releases have been swallowed whole by the excitement surrounding Fallout. Despite great review scores for several of this year’s marquee titles, all had remarkably short news cycles following (and even leading up to) their release. Halo 5, despite being the first new Halo game in 3 years, had excitement that lasted about a week or two. Treyarch’s sequel to one of the most beloved Call of Duty games, Black Ops 3, had little to no time in the spotlight. Rise of the Tomb Raider struggled to get even let fans know the game had shipped. And that’s all because of Fallout 4.  2015 has been one of the best years in gaming in recent memory, and even still, many of the great games that came out can’t escape the power of Fallout. The power of a game that shipped 12 million units in one day. A game that sold nearly 2 million digital copies in three days.

It's competition may be as strong as a Deathclaw, but Fallout 4 has power armor
and a mini gun. It's opponents didn't stand a chance.

No matter how I think about it, the hype for games like Fallout 4 is a strange phenomenon. As I alluded to in the opening of the article, only a few handful of IPs are able to command this kind of all encompassing attention. Some would argue the franchises that have this impact are subjective. I can agree to a certain extent. I’d argue, however, that there are a precious few IPs that are objectively ‘nuclear bombs.’ Namely: Fallout, Grand Theft Auto, and The Legend of Zelda. Small spin-offs aside, each new entry into these three franchises drums up a fervor that’s unmatched in the industry. The create a kind of excitement that fuels massive surges to console purchases, break sales records, or are the largest entertainment release of the year. But why these three? It’s a question that I couldn’t get out of my head in the weeks leading up to Fallout 4’s release. Why does a new GTA or Zelda or Fallout dominate so much of the games conversation? Why are the fans of these franchises so passionate, so vocal, and so large in number? Why couldn’t I stop myself from feeding into this hype cycle?

Mini nuke? Nah. Just Fallout 4 hitting stores.

After much reflection, I came up with four reasons why I think Fallout, and it’s group of elite peers, are ‘nuclear bombs.’ I’ll touch on each briefly.

Peerlessness

Want to know the number one reason why I was (and am) so excited for Fallout 4? Because no other game I’ve played can provide me with the same kind of experience. Many other games have tried, but none have been able to create as compelling a setting, as content dense a map, and as rich an open world as Bethesda RPG’s. Fallout has no competition for the type of experience it provides to you. The skill with which the team at Bethesda puts their games together is incredible. They are able to create worlds that you want to get lost in. Every piece of content in their immense games feels meaningful. The world is filled with secrets both obvious and obscure, both exciting and tragic. Fallout allows you to role-play to the fullest extent. You have full control of all character customization, skills, stats, morality, weapon preferences, armor, and many more.

I have mixed feelings about open world games, generally. So many open worlds are bland, lifeless. Exploring and playing them often feels like an excise in tedium. One of my chief complaints about ‘bad’ open world games is locomotion: how fun it is to get from point A to B is paramount. That’s because the space between A and B is usually devoid of interest. Fallout 4, and Bethesda RPG’s generally, make every single square inch of their world worth spending time in. You’ll find hidden stories, great loot, new allies, and more. No other open world game, even some of the best (The Witcher 3 or Infamous) can replicate this feeling. Every aspect of Fallout synergizes to create an unmatched experience.

Many have tried, but there's nothing quite like Fallout.

Developer Trust

The fervor for Fallout 4 began as early as it did because the game’s developer, Bethesda Softworks, has a long and (mostly) spotless history of great games. Developer trust is a significant part of why Fallout is part of such an elite group of franchises in the gaming industry. To put it simply: you know exactly what to expect when you boot up your copy of Fallout 4. You can trust the game will be massive, content rich, gripping. Most importantly, you know that it will match or exceed the quality of previous entries. Bethesda hasn’t released a bad Fallout. Bethesda hasn’t pulled the wool over fan’s eyes with a suboptimal game. Every Bethesda RPG, every modern Fallout game, has that same stamp of quality. This is where so many other IPs are unable to achieve the notoriety that Fallout or GTA or Zelda have been able to achieve. One bad game release, or even one particularly egregious element in an otherwise great game, can sink the franchise. As a quick example: Mass Effect. Despite BioWare creating an extraordinary new series, missteps with the third game’s ending and issues plaguing some of the studio’s other releases resulted in the erosion of trust. Though excitement is still high for Mass Effect Andromeda, it hasn’t and won’t reach the same levels as Fallout 4. The developer trust isn’t there. I felt justified in my excitement for Fallout 4 because I had confidence it would achieve the same level of excellence as Fallout 3 or Skyrim. And, in my 15 or so hours that I’ve been able to play so far, I can confidently say that my assumption was right. Bethesda doesn’t release bad games.

You see this logo? You can be confident in knowing that the experience will meet expectations.

Chronology

Want to play a new Fallout game? A new GTA or Zelda? You’re going to have to wait. But in the case of these IPs, that’s a very good thing. There are many games that, in my opinion, are as good or better than Fallout games. There isn’t a Fallout title in my top ten games of all time. I can say without exaggeration, however, that Fallout 4 was my most anticipated game of the year ever since it was announced. It had been so long since I’ve played Fallout. It’s been seven years since the last game in the series. Fallout 3 released when I was a freshman in college; Fallout 4 released during my fourth year in graduate school. That’s a long time. A lot has happened. It’s given me (and others) the time and space needed to gain perspective, distance myself from my time with the previous game, and fuel my hunger for more of the same. Just like developer trust, an ideal chronology is another element that many other IPs fail at achieving. Despite the wide-spread critical acclaim and fan excitement for Assassin’s Creed 2, the yearly releases of sequels has driven excitement into the dirt. People still play and enjoy Assassin’s Creed, sure, but it’s hard to argue that people are that excited to get their hands on the latest version. Bethesda, Rockstar and Nintendo all take their time with new mainline entries to Fallout, GTA and Zelda respectively. Distance makes the heart grow fonder. And in games, time is distance.

New Fallout games are few and far between. Perhaps the rest are still locked
up in the Vault.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia’s role in building these megaliths of the gaming industry is a complicated one. Certainly a much larger subject than can be covered in one short paragraph here. Though, it matters, and I wanted to mention it briefly. Nostalgia acts as a combination of peerlessness, developer trust and chronology. The groundbreaking GTA3, A Link to the Past and / or Ocarina of Time were formative experiences for so many gamers. Playing a new entry in these franchises calls back to the time you spent with previous entries—a time that, for so many, defined who you were or how you thought as a gamer. Fallout is interesting when considering nostalgia. Fallout and Fallout 2 were huge, certainly, but don’t command the same sort of import as early GTA or Zelda titles. But Fallout 3 was so profoundly impactful it’s created its own type of nostalgia. Fallout 3 created a new era of fans talking about how fantastic the game was, how much it did well and how it was an experience unlike any other. That’s created a ravenous, nostalgic void for Fallout 4’s release. People are excited either because they played Fallout 3 and thought it was great or, for many others, because they heard how great Fallout 3 was and want to finally enjoy the franchise for themselves. Fallout 3 was that flashpoint—the game itself didn’t sell well at launch, but gained momentum over time. Regardless, a culture of longing for previous entries is essential in forming the kind of craze I’m writing about it. Nostalgia is a powerful motivator.

I feel a twinge of 'nostalgia' for Diamond City already. Fallout makes a deep connection
with the player almost immediately.

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What do you think? What are the reasons you think franchises like Fallout and Grand Theft Auto and The Legend of Zelda make such an enormous impact on the industry? What other IPs do you think are peerless, are emblematic of developer trust, have a compelling release chronology and make you nostalgic? I’d love to know. In the meantime, I think it’s time to get back to playing Fallout 4.