Fallout 3 irradiates homes globally with $300 million in sales

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 6th 2008 at 11:00AM }

Bethesda Softworks announced this morning that Fallout 3 has dropped 4.7 million units on retail and (Geiger) counted sales of over $300 million. Initial retail data from the UK shows the game is a hit on every platform it was released on. Don't let the money fool you, the title isn't just a sales darling, it's been well received by critics as well.

So, when do we get Fallout 4? We do know that Bethesda is "potentially" working on getting another Elder Scrolls out the door for 2010, but perhaps the hundreds of millions in Fallout dollars will convince the developer to hire some folks to work on another post-apocalyptic RPG at the same time.

Tags: bethesda, bethesda-softworks, fallout-3, sales

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

ExMcCloud @ Nov 6th 2008 11:05AM

So now since u made that money maybe u can send me that Pip Boy watch that I SHOULD have gotten?

Kouerson @ Nov 6th 2008 11:08AM

Although Fallout 4 would certainly be nice here's hoping Bethesda don't turn it into a churn-a-game franchise. Even though I love the series dearly and Bethesda made a good game, it doesn't need to have a game with it's name come out every two or three years.

Jakka @ Nov 6th 2008 11:17AM

Didn't they do that already?

Kouerson @ Nov 6th 2008 11:19AM

Didn't they already make Fallout 4? What?

Jakka @ Nov 6th 2008 11:23AM

No, not Fallout 4 silly. Ruining the franchise...

baby sea tuna @ Nov 6th 2008 11:28AM

Um, no.

Kouerson @ Nov 6th 2008 11:28AM

Pretty much, the isometric bliss is ruined and this is the re-envisioned Oblivion makeover version.

At least it's not as bad as Brotherhood of Steel.

Park Zero @ Nov 6th 2008 12:20PM

Isometric bliss? Fallout wasn’t great because of a camera angle it was great because it had soul, character, style, charm, and atmosphere. Bethesda did a great job with Fallout 3 to keep that soul intact.

Kouerson @ Nov 6th 2008 1:51PM

And the only thing that's left in Fallout 3 is the style, ninty percent of the NPCs are lifeless and characterless windbags.

Bethesda culled what they wanted from the previous Fallout games and went their own direction with everything else but the style. Let's not forget not allowed not to kill children and making the world a sullen grey monstrosity.

I'm not saying Fallout 3 isn't a good game, just you can't compare it to the first two games at all and F3 hasn't come close to the greatness of those games.

BananaBoat @ Nov 6th 2008 2:36PM

Even though I haven't bought it yet (still engrossed in LBP) it's really heartwarming that in an age of casual BS rising to the top of the sales charts, we have a game that isn't for anyone else but US sitting pretty at 4.7 million copies sold. I was worried that the game wouldn't top a million. Wow was I wrong, and I'm so happy for the RPG genre. I'm going to go out and buy it later, even if I'll have no time to play it till thanksgiving.

Titanium_Orchid @ Nov 6th 2008 4:15PM

I think Fallout 3 was better in a lot of ways, compared to the first two.

I also think that they did a great job with the licenses and evolved the series a lot.

zuburi @ Nov 6th 2008 6:01PM

I am going to agree with Kouerson and, God help me, Jakka.

While some of you are saying "a game for us," I see it as "a game for them."

While many of you see it as catering to the hardcore, I see it as one of the last nails in hardcore gaming's coffin. It may very well be a "neo-hardcore" game, but don't let it fool you: it is catered to and simplified for the masses.

Compared to the first two, it has a simplistic leveling system. Your dialogue choices are, as is usual for "free-roaming" games nowadays, shoehorned into blatantly good/neutral/evil choices. Even D&D gives you 9 shades of grey, not just black and white.

It is even simplistic compared to the Elder Scrolls games - the leveling system in those were incredible. Jump a lot and you'll level up jumping. Cast a lot of healing spells and you'll level up healing. Fallout 3 has none of that depth.

It has a flimsy attempt to appeal to fans of the original franchise with the neutered VATS system, which comes off as nothing more than auto-aiming bullet time. And the ending(s) are really awful and anticlimactic.

Aside from the switch to an FPS to appeal to a broader market, perhaps the biggest tell that this is a series that traded it's roots for mass-market appeal is the difficulty. I finished the game with 100 (100!!) stimpacks. I don't think that I had half that many in the first two games combined. In a day and age where Ninja Gaiden is considered hard and the "perfect" remake of Bionic Commando gives you a lifebar instead of insta-kills, I suppose that this is what it has come to.

It is a good game, and I did enjoy myself while playing it. However, to label it as the return of hardcore gaming is exactly the opposite of what it is. Sadly, with the market being flooded, that is what it takes to make a profit. I have accepted it and am moving on - but I am not pretending that this is a "hardcore" game.

jquadman @ Nov 7th 2008 9:24AM

Fallout 3 is a game for people who used to be "hardcore", but now don't have the time or the will to play through frustratingly hard games. And to me, that defines "US" as gamers.

Harder difficulty levels are still there for the hardest of the hardcore, but most of just want a game we can enjoy in our precious spare time.

Difficulty and complicated depth aside, Fallout 3 (like Bioshock) is a "gamer's game" that has sold well in this age of Wii Play/Fit/Music, and Petz. This is inherently a good thing.

Kouerson @ Nov 8th 2008 3:48AM

zuburi, you said it much more effortlessly than I did. The amount of casual catering in Fallout 3 leads it so far from hardcore that it slips into the realm of frat boys who needed something to do before Gears 2 came out.

Hell, I haven't even been challenged much on the hardest difficulty setting and you're right about the over saturation of stimpaks in the world.

While Bioshock can very well be considered a "gamer's game", Fallout 3 can not. Oblivion and now Fallout 3 are two of the most casual RPGs I've ever encountered, add on zuburi's points about it being watered down even compared to Oblivion and you have yourself a game that was made to ship copies.

Good on them for making a successful game in that respect.

Cyrius @ Nov 14th 2008 7:26AM

I'm just going to go ahead and have to disagree with you. As an avid Fallout 1 & 2 fan(seriously, have you even played the originals? Do you have any idea what you are talking about?), I really appreciate what Bethesda has done here.

By when you say compared to the first two's leveling system, do you mean they simply added a perk every level instead of 3 or 4? How is this a bad thing? It allows you to add more flavor to your character than in the previous fallouts. Also, I am just going to go ahead and say the dialogue choices were relatively 'black and white' in the old ones as well. It was very hard to play a neutral character, because not only is it an alignment, it also chooses your factions.

Simplistic compared to Oblivion? What the FUCK are you talking about? Going from Morrowind to Oblivion was like shooting myself in the foot then trying to run a triathalon. I don't give a fuck if you jump a lot and 'level your jumping' because that would LITERALLY be breaking off of Fallout's core rules. Fallout 3 is a Fallout game, not an Elder Scrolls game.

VATS did a good job of melding real time with turn based. That's its entire purpose. Some battles in Fallout took 15-20 minutes just between 6 people. That just isn't acceptable nowadays. If you want that shit, play a JRPG.

I don't think the switch to a first person view (This game is ABSOLUTELY NOT a FPS, need I ask you again, have you actually played this? Did you just watch a bunch of youtube videos?)is a bad thing. I am thoroughly enjoying this more detailed and exciting view, with THOROUGH experience of the franchise. With the 100 stimpacks thing, how high was your Medical skill, did you take scavenging, what was your luck score? These things all account into your loot and stimpacks. Also, with the original fallouts, you could beat the game in 20 minutes. Is that harder than this? When I figured out that I could go to the enclave base and get the Adv. Power Armor MKII as soon as I left Arroyo, I tried it out. Pretty fucking easy.

Also, for all the people who are talking about 'non quest useless NPCs'; Do you remember drifters, wasters, junkies, random slavers, children, ghouls, etc from the originals? They had no quests or story roles. Let me ask you this, when you walk down the street, do you speak to every single person you pass by and become known with them on a name to name basis? Or do you just wait in line at the grocery store until the random person in front of you is gone? The characters now have more depth, you can see them move, follow their day to day path, etc. You can find where they live, when they sleep, and when a good time to rob them is.

And who gives a fuck about the 'hardcore gamer.' The 'hardcore gamer' thing never really applied to PC gamers, because we simply never got the fluff console gamers did. PC games were always about SERIOUS fun. Being a 'hardcore gamer' is basically saying 'I take my entertainment seriously. Don't fuck with me' and it's bullshit. Its a big lie to yourselves. I don't play video games to say my pecker is bigger than yours, I play them to have a good time. Hardcore is beating the shit out of someone because they looked at you wrong, not how much you like video games. Just because you're old enough to have played Mario 2 on the nes does NOT mean you are hardcore.

If you want a 'hardcore' game, play Europa Universalis 3. Let's see if your little console-game playing head can even comprehend the complexity of a real game that requires critical thinking.

AwesomeTown @ Nov 6th 2008 11:11AM

It's more like $300 million worth of awesome.

Oh, and I like the way Bethesda does things now. I wouldn't want quality to suffer if they take on two big projects at once.

Doug @ Nov 6th 2008 7:40PM

Yeah, if every three years your company is bringing in about 350 million (adding later purchases of all their games- maybe more) that's really good. I loved Fallout 3 Bethesda, keep up the good work :D.

Orangecoke @ Nov 6th 2008 11:12AM

Phenomenal game and a huge value in terms of entertainment hours! They deserve every penny they get :)

Mr. E @ Nov 6th 2008 11:13AM

If Elder Scrolls could only use the V.A.T.S. all would be good. But the would have to rename it M.A.T.S.

LeadBoxx @ Nov 6th 2008 11:19AM

I am having Fallout 3 withdrawals here at work.

Mark C @ Nov 6th 2008 1:09PM

Same...I keep attempting to crouch and sneak out, but my boss keeps detecting me.

I admit, that was weak.

Marcus @ Nov 6th 2008 1:12PM

Same here buddy, same here.

caserb @ Nov 6th 2008 6:14PM

I've been dreaming in Fallout, and honestly as bleak as the game is they weren't nightmares.

SoulBlade @ Nov 6th 2008 11:21AM

Further proof that hardcore games aren't going to die if they're good. Nice.

MikeO. @ Nov 6th 2008 11:23AM

I've not been able to put this game down since it came out. Everyone kept complaining that it was "Oblivion with guns" and to be brutally honest, it IS Oblivion with polish and some Fallout themes to it.

Good thing I loved Fallout 1 and Oblivion. Game is perfect for me. My only gripe is weapons and armor take waaaay too much damage on the harder modes. Almost to the point that you have to carry 10 different outfits to mix and match to keep yourself alive.

I love the design of the game, the weapons look awesome. I just got a Fat Man last night and I'm having a ton of fun with that. Yikes, I hope people konw what that is or I'm going to have some explaining to do. =O

Cyrius @ Nov 14th 2008 7:32AM

Im looking for the MIRV launcher. I'm kinda scared of what launching 8 mininukes at once will do though....

dark_inchworm @ Nov 6th 2008 11:27AM

War. War never changes.

Especially when it pushes several million copies.

Seth @ Nov 6th 2008 11:31AM

With all that bank maybe they can patch the game so that NPCs don't freaking disappear. And get some people on all of the other PS3 bugs. I own the PS3 version (only because the Xbox red ringed and I needed a game) so I have the right to complain :)

Farseer (GDI) @ Nov 6th 2008 11:40AM

Am I the only one feeling a bit depressed because of this game? Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy playing it, but it just makes my daily life feel... pointless.

I heard that the wastes will do that to a person, but never knew it could happen to me...

Farseer (GDI) @ Nov 6th 2008 11:40AM

Damnit; sorry for the DP.

Never mind, I don't give a shit.

JonFitt @ Nov 6th 2008 11:43AM

Great game, but perhaps now they could bung a bit of that money into fixing up the PC version then...

Viridium @ Nov 6th 2008 12:59PM

And the 360 version.

Chin-Poh @ Nov 6th 2008 1:03PM

With the PC version, you can count on the modding community to create mods as well as great fixes for it at least.

BigD145 @ Nov 6th 2008 1:42PM

The PC modding community is pretty much guaranteed to fix any and all bugs that Bethesda won't touch. The game just looks better on the PC, so I'm set to hunker down and play to my hearts content.

Kai @ Nov 6th 2008 11:54AM

Screw Oblivion, I'd rather have another Fallout.

Chase @ Nov 6th 2008 4:20PM

Amen.

player66 @ Nov 6th 2008 11:56AM

So does 4.7 Million in worldwide sales in less than a month FINALLY silence the NME crowd? I loved Fallout 1 & 2, but game design and tastes have changed. I hope Bethesda feels fully vindicated with this success. They deserve it!

Tadpole @ Nov 6th 2008 11:56AM

Hopefully Obama will force Bethesda to spread some of that wealth around.

Farseer (GDI) @ Nov 6th 2008 12:22PM

woo hoo! zing!

Wait a sec... if it didn't work before the election, what makes you think it will now?

343 Guilty Fart @ Nov 6th 2008 12:51PM

Funny, I'd rather have another Oblivion.

Matt @ Nov 6th 2008 11:57AM

I really hope they do get another team on this, so we can have one in the next 2-3 years, as I am loving this game. I was a huge fan of the original two fallouts, and was kind of disappointed when I heard it wouldn't be in the isometric view, but not anymore. I'm excited to think of where they could take the franchise, and what city they may do next. If they stay in the USA they could do New York, which would be amazing. However, a foreign city might be interesting, like Paris or London.