This article was written by DK Valene, one of our lovely contributors. For more information on this writer or if you’d like to get involved yourself, take a look at our Contributors page.
The Fallout universe isn’t the largest when it comes to fan population, but it certainly has some dedicated ones and they’re are watering at the mouth for more information after some posts on websites that aren’t exactly reliable sources.
On 14 November 2013, IGN reported that a user on Reddit discovered website thesurvivor2299.com. This site had the Vault-Tec logo, a Morse code sound-bite and a countdown timer that ends on 11 December 2013; and a slogan above the countdown says ‘Nuclear Winter is here’ with a message that is encrypted as a reverse Vigenére Cipher. This, when decrypted, hints at events surrounding ‘The Institute’ which we know of as MIT, while the Morse code when translated states that Boston has been destroyed. In the Fallout world, this city is called ‘The Commonwealth’ and is frequently mentioned by non-player characters in Fallout 3, which is where the first Morse code on this new site made mention of a location called ‘Oscar Zulu’ that is part of a hidden quest line in the game. About a week after thesurvivor2299.com went live Bethesda started marketing a limited edition hoodie for Vault 77 (777 available for $77.00USD each) along with other items that relate to Fallout 3 but bear no relation to the sequel Fallout: New Vegas.
When doing research the site is registered to ZeniMax (owners of Bethesda), but is provided by godaddy.com and was sourced to an IP address in Poland, then transferred to Maryland, USA where Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax are headquartered, which is not a standard pattern for the company’s managed websites. On 01 December 2013 a small countdown timer that said ‘Nuclear Winter is coming’ hit zero. The site crashed shortly thereafter. IGN has warned players to take this site with a grain of salt as questions sent to the developer have remain unanswered. Despite the silence fans are holding out for a big reveal most likely due to Bethesda flat out denying upcoming games in the past. Another item that came to the eyes of the public and had fans scrambling for more information was a trademark request filed in the European Union under the name Fallout 4. This, however, is now circulating as fake because the EU no longer has the title registered under their list of copyrights.
This is the thesurvivor2299.com website at the time of writing.
Despite no clear indications of a new Fallout game fans are also pointing to when Erik Todd Dellums, who voiced Three Dog in Fallout 3, made a post on twitter back in January hinting that they may see his character in the future. When interviewed, Dellums said Bethesda hinted his fans may want to know, but no one was expecting the number of questions that would flow into the developer’s studios soon after. He has also revealed that the developer stays very tight-lipped about all studio productions and that the mention of Fallout on television must go through an approval process first.
The last part that hasn’t been mentioned with much frequency is the fact that Bethesda went to court and won all rights to produce a Fallout MMO, which for fans is a big deal, since it allows them to go to new areas that were unseen in previous installments. This has been in works under the title Project V13 and as of January 2013, a contributor’s forum was added.
The wasteland may be our home again soon.
So rest easy fans, Bethesda Softworks hasn’t given a definite answer and there are clear indicators that something involving our favorite post-apocalyptic America is coming. All we have to do is just keep waiting. The wasteland will be our home again soon.
This article was written by DK Valene, one of our lovely contributors. For more information on this writer or if you’d like to get involved yourself, take a look at our Contributors page.
