Fallout Shelter Now Available on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch
Fallout Shelter originally released in 2015, just prior to the release of Fallout 4. The free-to-play mobile game was enormously successful, and played a major role in Bethesda’s marketing campaign. Since then, the game has come to both PC and Xbox One, in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Now, to celebrate the game’s three-year anniversary, Bethesda has released it on both the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch.
The New Versions of Fallout Shelter
The announcement was made by Bethesda director Todd Howard during the company’s E3 presentation last night. Mirroring Fallout Shelter’s original announcement, Howard revealed that the game was immediately available to download. The announcement confirms a leak from earlier this week, where a trophy list for the game’s PlayStation version was posted online. At the time, it seemed likely that new versions of the game would release to celebrate the third anniversary; that assumption proved to be entirely accurate. The PS4 and Switch versions of Fallout Shelter are still free-to-play, of course.
Although Bethesda isn’t doing anything new to bolster their marketing for Fallout 76, as they did for Fallout 4 back in 2015, bringing Shelter to the PS4 and Nintendo Switch is a good way of bringing the game back into the public eye. The rumors and then teaser trailer for Fallout 76 contributed to a shocking rise in Fallout 4 sales during May. So much so, in fact, that Fallout 4 was the 8th bestselling game in Europe for the month of May. By releasing new ports for Fallout Shelter, Bethesda is reminding their fans about the mobile title. It seems very likely that a spike in usage will occur as a result.
There are two likely reasons why Bethesda isn’t doing anything like a sequel to Fallout Shelter for Fallout 76’s marketing campaign. The first is the release of Elder Scrolls Blades, which appears to be a much larger free-to-play mobile title, likely taking up much of their mobile development team’s time. The second is that Fallout 76 will be having a public beta; with fans able to get their hands on Fallout 76 early, albeit an unfinished version, Bethesda may feel less of a compulsion to provide interim content.