Fallout 4 is finally official, but the fake rumours won’t stop popping up. As Ron Perlman might say: Bullshit. Bullshit never changes.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve been inundated with rumours about the next Fallout game, most of them blatantly fake, including a massive ARG back in 2013 that fooled a whole lot of people. In fact — at risk of breaking our arms trying to violently pat ourselves on the back — the only substantial Fallout 4 rumour that turned out to be true came from Kotaku in December 2013. (More on that in a bit.)
Today, however, the internet is going nuts over a Reddit post from June 2014 that many now seem to believe was accurate. In the post, a user named SandraReed claims to have been an employee at Bethesda who played the next Fallout game, and she outlines a list of fanfictiony bullet-points including returning Fallout characters and even a roadmap for announcement and release.
Since yesterday’s Fallout 4 news, the post has started recirculating, to the point where it’s now been linked on the top of major subreddits including r/games, r/gaming, and r/fallout — comprising a readership of millions. (Video game sites like Destructoid also reported on the rumour, calling it at least partially true.)
Problem is, this new Reddit post appears to be nonsense. It’s got some spurious claims, like the fact that there will be a last-gen version of Fallout 4 with a Fallout 3 save transfer feature, as if Bethesda would implement such a substantial system for last-gen players only. Right now, Bethesda has only announced that Fallout 4 is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Even if there is a last-gen version, it’s clear that the company is pushing for current-gen, so why would they add such a crucial feature to only the last-gen versions?
There are other compelling reasons I believe this is a fake, too. Over the past 24 hours, fans have pointed out that SandraReed got some details correct — like the Boston setting and the voiced player-character — but what some haven’t seemed to realise is that those details originated from Kotaku months earlier. Almost all of the correct information from SandraReed’s post came from our leaked casting documents, including the Boston setting.
For example, SandraReed wrote in June 2014:
In Fallout 4, mixing things up, we are making the game more “Story Based” and the player character will finally talk, and narrate his storyline.
In yesterday’s official trailer, the protagonist speaks — a first for the series — which made some think SandraReed was legit. Yet we revealed the existence of a voiced protagonist months before SandraReed’s post, thanks to casting auditions for the main character (who sure looks like the guy in yesterday’s trailer):
SandraReed claimed that you’ll only be able to play with a male protagonist, but we learned back in 2013 that Bethesda was auditioning for both male and female heroes, as we wrote back then. She also wrote that Bethesda would reveal Fallout 4 with a “trailer only” at E3 2015; instead, we saw a trailer before E3 and will likely see a substantial demo during Bethesda’s presser on June 14.
Granted, some of these details might have changed over the past few years. But the evidence points to this being a fake. In the Reddit post, SandraReed also says that her username is her real name — “Ask one of the Bethesda Employees about Me (my username is my name) and they will confirm I worked for Bethesda” — but there’s no sign of anyone with that name having ever worked for the company.
Finally, here’s one more clear sign that this SandraReed post is a hoax, based on two curious lines she wrote last year:
Anyways, I worked at Bethesda Game Studios in Maryland up until last month before I was fired for releasing confidential information (but it was an accident!)
And later…
PS. I leaked some of the first Fallout 4 info by accident, and it ended up in the hands of Kotaku. Oops.
We can definitively say this part isn’t true. The only Fallout 4 leak we posted revolved around a set of casting documents we received in 2013, two of which we posted on Kotaku. Those documents did not come from anyone at Bethesda Game Studios. Nobody named Sandra Reed has leaked anything to us or to anyone else who shared any information with us.
Comments
23 responses to “Popular Fallout 4 Rumour Sure Seems Like BS”
Guys, let’s be real here. Fallout 4 was never announced…
…
…it’s a Fallout MMORPG.
Bethesda didn’t have the rights to a Fallout MMO until very recently, so unless they are announcing an MMO years before release it’s impossible.
l think after how badly ESO has done, I don’t think we’ll see a Fallout MMO for a lone time. I would say they snatched it up to simply prevent Fallout being developed by anyone else.
I thought they got them a while after Fallout 3 but plans were scrapped.
(Wtf, this story isn’t trending, it’s bloody old)
I was wondering about this. Saw the post and asked myself if i missed somehow fallout 4 info from kotaku, which is incredibly unlikely.
Sandra Reed is really just an anagram for Sand Ra Deer, a sad based sun god in the shape of a woodland creature blessing you with the light of Fallout knowledge! you should be thankful such an amazing being leaked this info to you years ago and got fired for it.
I should probably bite my tongue, but whatever… More than anything this article else reads like Kotaku throwing a tantrum solely because people aren’t giving them credit, and more specifically the attention, for certain information and are instead attributing it to this SandraReed.
I have visions of a kid waving his arms around while furiously yelling, “But I said it first guys! Pay attention to me!”
Credit where credit is due, but some of the wording just seems fairly petty and purely to take jabs here and there not only at the person behind the SandraReed alias but also anyone seeing the information and not immediately bowing down to Kotaku for it.
I got the same feeling from parts of it tbh
I can see what you are saying, but I took it more as them pointing out that the only things Sandra Reed said that were correct, where the things that Kotaku reported. So not only did they say it first, they said it right, and Sandra shouldn’t take what they said and mix in false information and then try and piggyback on Kotaku’s reputation
Honestly they are just trying to cash in on a hot topic. They want some of those millions of page views that reddit gets, so they can get that sweet ad money.
Yeeeah.. I am generally the first to defend Kotaku writers, but I got the same vibe on this one.
Yeah, and another thing: the whole bit about the Fallout 3 save transfer doesn’t make sense. Witcher 3 offers a save file import on PC and can be simulated on PS4/Xbone. Mass Effect 2 offered an import for 360 and a simulation for PS3. There’s no reason Bethesda wouldn’t do a save file import on PC/PS3/360 and a simulation option on all platforms.
Its all a fake, its all a lie. There is no FO4….it will soon be revelead to be a hoax…and then HL3 will come.
I am holding out for the HL3, Fallout4, Portal 3 cross over
The main playable character being Duke Nukem of old.
I would play that game in a heartbeat!
I just head Duke making a comment about “that’s playing with portals” after punting a head crab through a portal and having it come out the other end to kill a giant ant.
yeah, I would totally play that game.
Just think of Duke Nukem replacing the main protagonist for each of those series’. Hilarity ensues.
Fallout 4: See you in hell!
Half Life 3: Bitchin’!
Portal 3: Piece of Cake!
All Duke Nukem editions.
I’d actually be interested in seeing how just many video game rumours turned out to be true in the end, like the GTA 5 casting call rumour.
I’d be extremely surprised if Bethesda decide to go down the road of only using a male protagonist. That’s too big a can of worms and pretty unlikely. Chances are both genders are in it and they’re both voiced, making the Kotaku leaks more likely.
I’m more disappointed at the fact that the trailer didn’t give many of us the wow moments Fallout 3 did back in the day.
Have we become too desensitized, or is this game seemingly not pushing the graphical barriers too much like its predecessors did?
a little of column A and little of column b along with a good helping of cynicism
I don’t know if you ever played the original two Fallout games, but for me the big wow factor from the Fallout 3 trailer was the gigantic leap from an isometric world down to an up close and personal 3D world. Going from said 3D world to a slightly more pretty 3D world just does not have the same effect.
That being said, Fallout 1 and 2 are still far superior games in my opinion and no amount of pretty pixels can sway me on that.
As for the protagonist, I would suggest you are correct and it will be a kind of Shepard (of Mass Effect) situation.
Yeah I loved the two games to bits. I still remember playing the demo of Fallout 1 over and over again (50 times I reckon) because it was so awesome.