Fallout: New York is the surprise Fallout 5 stand-in Bethesda doesn't want you to play

The future of the Fallout franchise is supposed to be in safe hands, with Bethesda now sitting under the green hue of Microsoft. While that likely means the long-awaited Fallout 5 will launch as an Xbox exclusive, all of this is still a long way off.

Following the release of Starfield in 2023, Bethesda confirmed all efforts are now focused on The Elder Scrolls VI. As there’s still no release date for that fantasy adventure, Fallout 5 feels like it’s eons away.

There are small mercies like Amazon’s live-action series as well as Fallout 3 Remastered & Fallout: New Vegas Remastered, but as the gaming world waits for even a sliver of information about what’s going on with Fallout 5, a growing number of fan projects like Fallout: New York are attempting to tide us over.

What is Fallout: New York?

Team FOLON released the lauded Fallout: London as an ambitious fan game in 2024, and seeing how well it was received, it’s no surprise that others have been trying to follow in its footsteps.

The past 29 years of Fallout games have taken us everywhere from California to Washington D.C., Nevada to Atlantic City, but the Big Apple remains something of a mystery.

While it’s confirmed that New York City was hit by nuclear attacks in the Great War, its post-war status remains unclear.

One Fallout 76 character claims it's a ‘big crater’, although the fan community continues to argue whether this is canon.

Even though this means a game set in NYC is a godsend, Fallout: New York has faced more than a few teething problems.

One AI-loving developer called CHRIS FIRST shared a trailer for Fallout: New York on X.

Some were immediately put off by the fact that it was built using Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5, but as a playable browser game that includes a varied questline, impressive arsenal of weapons, 112 characters, and the franchise’s beloved V.A.T.S. system, others were immediately sold.

Unfortunately for Fallout: New York, it stumbled at the first hurdle as it landed on Bethesda’s radar and has already been nuked into oblivion.

Despite saying they love Fallout and hoped Bethesda didn’t take it down, it appears CHRIS FIRST has cursed himself.

Sharing what looks like an official cease and desist from Bethesda overseer ZeniMax Media, the OP is warned that both the assets used and the domain name of fallout.nyc are infringing on copyright.

If legitimate, the letter maintains that ZeniMax must “monitor and enforce against the unauthorized and infringing use of its trademarks in a way that is likely to cause consumer confusion and/or any other act that may weaken, dilute, or otherwise adversely affect the goodwill and reputation of its brands.”

Gamers react to Fallout: New York’s demise

Before Fallout: New York went dark, opinions were already split. Namely, critics called out the Play-Doh-esque faces of the NPCs and various creatures.

Others were more than happy to play a free Fallout game in any form.

One person pointed out how it took ConcernedApe four years to code Stardew Valley and Fallout: New York was created in a week, saying: “What a time to be alive.”

Another cheered: “Wow with AI 🤖 we could have 50 @Fallout games each set in a different state looking forward to playing a fallout set in my home state of Georgia.”

Most were against the whole concept of an AI-generated Fallout, with someone else adding: “AI slop is still slop even if its pretending to be Fallout.”

Another skeptic concluded: “Do not taint Fallout with your AI vomit. This is an insult to game developers.”

Someone referred to it as ‘Temu Fallout’, but hate it or not, Fallout: New York wasn’t long for this world.

With Bethesda presumably tinkering away in secret on Fallout 5, maybe Fallout: New York was given the boot becuase the next official outing is heading there.

We can only hope.