The highly anticipated DLC-sized mod for Fallout 4, Fallout: London, has been delayed from its original April 23rd release date. The delay is directly attributed to the impending release of Bethesda’s next-gen update for Fallout 4, which is scheduled to drop just two days after the mod’s planned launch.
“As you can imagine, this will impact us and will cause complications for our release,” explained Dean Carter, the team lead of the voluntary Fallout: London development team, in a recent update video. “It’s simply not just the case of blocking the updates and hoping for the best because if you don’t do it properly, it’ll also break, and we can’t just ask you to drag things back in time – that’s just not on the cards.”
The Fallout: London mod has been in development for the past four years, aiming to provide players with a completely new post-apocalyptic environment to explore in the Fallout universe – this time, the streets of London. However, the team now faces the challenge of ensuring the mod is compatible with the upcoming Fallout 4 engine improvements and performance upgrades introduced by the next-gen update.
“On the technical front, being able to play Fallout London with the new potential engine improvements and the performance upgrades is fantastic,” Carter added. “It’s going to mean that we can push the engine even harder than we’ve already pushed it, so we’re gonna get these great quality-of-life improvements in the mod.”
Unfortunately, the Fallout: London team is unable to provide a replacement release date at this time, as the extent of the impact the next-gen update will have on the mod’s core systems remains uncertain. Carter stated that while a “day one fix” is possible, it’s more likely that the delay could stretch to a month or more.
“As soon as we’ve fixed it, it’ll drop. But… yeah. Bethesda. Bethesda never changes,” he concluded.
In the meantime, the Fallout: London mod will not be hosted on Nexus Mods due to its sizeable 30-40GB file, but the team is working with the “technical boffins” at GOG to make the mod available to players who own Fallout 4 on PC through that platform, as well as on Steam and possibly the Epic Games Store.
The delay comes as the Fallout franchise experiences a resurgence in popularity, with the recent release of the Amazon Prime TV series driving a significant boost in concurrent player numbers for Fallout 4 on Steam. Fans eagerly await the opportunity to explore the streets of post-apocalyptic London, but the Fallout: London team is taking the necessary steps to deliver the best possible experience for players, even if it means postponing the mod’s release.
