Bethesda isn’t making just one Fallout game right now.
The publisher announced that it is going to release Fallout Shelter for iOS and Android tonight — and it’s already out on iOS. This is a free-to-play game that lets you manage your own postapocalyptic vault. The goal of the game is to help the people in your vault survive and thrive by fighting off crises (like fires and enemy attacks) and by helping your survivors have offspring to make the next generation of vault dwellers.
This is Bethesda’s first mobile game, and it’s representative of its shifting priorities. Even as it preps to release its next major Fallout, the publisher is also planning to launch a few free-to-play games on PC alongside its newly announced BethesdaNet gaming service. Tonight, it also announced the free-to-play card game The Elder Scrolls: Legends.
While the game is free-to-play, Fallout designer Todd Howard explained that Shelter will not have timers that will keep parts of the world inaccessible unless you pay money. Instead, you can simply buy special bundles of loot if you want.
This was part of Bethesda’s big Electronic Entertainment Expo media briefing. It also revealed info about the new Doom, Fallout 4, and a Pip-Boy app for iPhones and Androids.