The latest Fallout 4 DLC news might actually be our last. It’s been long-confirmed that the next round of DLC will be Fallout ’s last.
Bummer.
The Fallout 4 DLC on offer is coming soon, very soon actually. There are three titles being released, Contraptions , Vault-Dweller and Nuka World . Vault-Dweller , a DLC that lets players build underground vaults and even conduct experiments on the residents, will release June 14. Contraptions , another craft centric add-on, will add lots of Rube Goldberg-esque sorting machines and conveyor systems and other thingamajigs and doodads designed to bring out your wacky side. It releases in July The final DLC, Nuka World , has been rumored for some time now and will be the only story-driven DLC of the bunch. Launching in August, Nuka World takes players to a haunted/defunct/spooky amusement park. But then, after August, that’s it for Fallout 4 DLC.
This DLC timetable is in line with what BGS has done for other games. Skyrim got three DLCs, including the house building toolkit Hearthfire which had virtually no quests. Oblivion got ten DLCs, but those were spread over a year and a half and included things like Horse Armor . Fallout 4 is less than a year old and we’ll soon have six releases, including the biggest playable area Bethesda’s ever done for a DLC. Not too shabby.
Still, the news is disappointing but fans shouldn't cry those salty years of butthurt just yet. The launch of console mods last month opens a door to an awful lot of potential content. There are already more than 1,700 mods available on Bethesda.net ranging from settlement items to full-blown quests. There will be more in the weeks and months to come.
The real issue will be whether or not the console community can keep its collective shit together long enough for modders to make the content everyone wants. The Fallout 4 console mod releases resulted in a lot of modders getting spammed with whiny requests . Modding has been a staple of PC culture for years, and it seems a lot of console gamers don't understand that mods are made by fans, not paid employees.
Mods are free content created by a volunteer army of tech savvy gamers. There are no betas or social marketing or, most importantly, no paychecks. This system worked well for Skyrim , as the mod community created some epic quests and narrative content. One of my first ever PC mods was a Skyrim mod that added a Khajit questline to the game. I went to their homeland Elseweyr, had hours of fun and didn't pay a dime.
This same level of care could keep the Fallout franchise fresh and relevant on consoles for years. Its an important stopgap for Bethesda fans who can expect a new title from Bethesda Game Studios sometime between now and the heat death of the sun. But modders need people to be patient and supportive otherwise there might not be a Skyrim -level scene to support the game. It would be a big barren wasteland. And not the kind we want.
