Fallout London's project lead is not taking the surprise drop of Fallout 4's update well: 'That has, for a lack of a better term, screwed us over'

A man in army uniform walking with a gun
(Image credit: Team FOLON)

Dean Carter, the project lead on Fallout London, revealed in a short interview with the BBC that Bethesda gave their team of modders no warning before Fallout 4's next-gen update, which he says "has, for a lack of a better term, screwed us over."

Originally, the "DLC-sized" mod that promises to transport Fallout 4 players to post-nuke London chose April 23 for its release because it was a "day that would work well for us, it would be after the series had come out, and also, it had related to when the in-game start date is as well being St George's Day," Carter explains. 

But things didn't go as planned. Fallout London was forced to push back its release date after Bethesda announced that a next-gen update for Fallout 4 would arrive on April 25. "I don't want to say 'suspect' because that makes it sound malicious. But if you were a big corporation and there was a fantastic [Fallout TV] series that just came out, you think you'd coalign it and have the big update ready on the same day the series comes out," Carter argues. "I don't think it's malicious, but it seems like a very arbitrary date for them to drop."

The Fallout 4 script extender will be what breaks after the next-gen update, so the Fallout London team will have to just wait and see what happens and then change the framework before making everything compatible. These problems are why Fallout London's release date got pushed back indefinitely.

Carter also explained in a video how all their work over the last few years is at risk of breaking. "We've just been tweaking and testing to get things as stable as we can for you all in time for that release. But with the new update dropping just 48 hours later, the past four years of our work stand to just simply break."

Since the video, plenty of fans who've been looking forward to exploring a Fallout location set outside the United States have voiced their annoyance towards Bethesda, and while Carter does reiterate that he didn't intend for the publisher to get the brunt of this, he says it's "inevitable when there's that lack of communication. So I just wish that they had a conversation with us." I don't think it's ever "inevitable" for a publisher to get tons of backlash for not working closely with an unofficial mod, but it isn't massively unsurprising in this case, given Fallout London's reach. 

Bethesda does have the verified creator program, which allows creators to earn royalties from their work—although many just view this as a way to wring money out of the modding community. However, Fallout London is separate from this and stands as an unofficial Fallout 4 mod. It's in part because of this that the team "had zero correspondence with Bethesda," but even so, Carter can't figure out why the team wasn't just asked to sign an NDA so they could be filled in with everything going on instead of "blindsiding us out of nowhere." Granted, this would have solved Fallout London's problems, but even still, for a large company to involve an independent modding team like that would be unprecedented. 

"I do understand that there is always going to be a hesitancy about working with the community because we're not industry professionals," Carter explains. "But there are schemes where they do work with community members, so why isn't that being done?" 

Carter argues that the team has "out-performed some of the Fallout 76 announcements … You’d think that they’d have at least had a conversation to just be like, 'Look, you guys are clearly at least notable, you’re not official, but let’s make sure that we don’t ruin this for the fans.'" 

I can understand why Fallout London is so upset, it's a grand effort to get this mod off the ground and to the point of release almost four years later, but this seems more like a case of crossed wires with a company that had no malicious intent, there was just a break down of communication. There's no word on an updated release date yet for Fallout London, but you never know the team could get lucky with a day-one fix, so maybe not all's lost yet. 

Elie Gould
News Writer

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.

Read more
Fallout: Nuevo Mexico screenshot
After resuming work following a 'hold' in 2024, Fallout: Nuevo Mexico is now officially cancelled: 'The costs ahead, both financial and personal, are too great'
Fallout 76 - a player in a vault suit gives a thumbs up
Fallout 76's former project lead says it's still his favourite game he worked on, but the initial reception was demoralising: 'I got yelled at in an Apple Store, I'll never forget'
Fallout 25th anniversary
'Fallout wasn't designed to have other players': Fallout co-creator Tim Cain was extremely wary of turning it into an MMO
Skyblivion evil character
With the next Elder Scrolls and Fallout games still years away, here are 6 upcoming total conversion mods for Skyrim and Fallout 4 to get excited about
The creepiest guy leans in front of an NPC mid-conversation in Starfield.
Starfield promises it still exists as silence drives fans to space-madness, but it mostly just annoys everyone: 'They are deliberately choosing not to communicate more'
Fallout 76 - a player in a vault suit gives a thumbs up
Fallout's original designer is fine with the direction of the modern games: 'They're both what they are, and a ton of people like it'
Latest in Fallout
Male and Female Vault Dweller holding guns and cresting a hill with ruined city in background
The New Vegas remake of the Fallout 3 that never was just got its first demo, not to be confused with the straight-up remake of the cancelled Fallout 3 or, indeed, Fallout 3
Lucy smiling while using her pip boy
Ella Purnell dreads being typecast for her 'poop finger' in Fallout: 'This finger is the bane of my life'
Fallout 76 - a player in a vault suit gives a thumbs up
Fallout 76's former project lead says it's still his favourite game he worked on, but the initial reception was demoralising: 'I got yelled at in an Apple Store, I'll never forget'
Mortimer Goth swanning around inside a New Vegas casino built inside the Sims 2
A Fallout: New Vegas fan is so fed up waiting for a remake he's decided to do it himself. The twist? He's making it in the Sims 2
Maybe I'll finally stop getting lost in Fallout: New Vegas' Bison Steve Hotel thanks to this new minimap mod
A jumpsuit-clad Lucy, played by Ella Purnell, emerges from a vault in the Fallout TV series.
Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins sure are excited for everyone to see Fallout season 2: 'No one's going to be able to predict what happens. There's some big twists this time around'
Latest in News
Aloy - Horizon
'I feel worried about this art form:' Unsurprisingly, the real Aloy from Horizon isn't a fan of AI Aloy
Crying laughing emoji with disturbing realistic elements for REPO
REPO's first update will add a new map and a 'duck bucket' so we can finally give that pesky quacker a time out
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games