Here’s an understatement: a lot of you are playing Fallout 4 right now. So many, in fact, that we’re seeing record sales – both in stores and digitally. Today, Bethesda Softworks announced that Fallout 4 launched with approximately 12 million units worldwide, representing sales in excess of $750 million. And that was just to meet day-one demand! According to some of our retail partners, Fallout 4 is setting records for the most pre-ordered game this year. They also tell us that launch day sales in some of the leading retail chains have been the largest for any game released this year. Phew!
And that’s just in stores. (By the way, if you can’t find a copy at your favorite retailer, don’t worry: we’re now shipping even more Fallout 4 units to retailers in order to meet the ongoing demand.) On Steam, Fallout 4 became the number-one game played, surpassing the previous record for concurrent play with over 470,000 Fallout players. The companion app, Fallout Pip-Boy, became the number one game on the iTunes App Store. Fallout 4 also set the record as the most-viewed game launch of 2015, according to Twitch. Meanwhile, the game is being met with rave reviews from many of the industry’s most influential and respected critics. We’ve collected just a few of our favorite quotes in the image below… “We’re extremely proud of Todd Howard, Game Director at Bethesda Game Studios, and his experienced team of developers for their talent and dedication in creating this extraordinary game,” said Vlatko Andonov, President of Bethesda Softworks. “Fallout 4 is a masterpiece in game development and storytelling, providing fans hundreds of hours of fun as they explore and are challenged by this fascinating, beautifully crafted world.” “A huge thanks to our fans that’ve made this all possible,” said Todd Howard, Game Director on Fallout 4. “After four years of development, it's not complete until our fans get to play it and make it their own. We can't wait to hear about their adventures.”
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Judging from the strange sounds coming from the yard next door, Inon Zur’s neighbors would be forgiven for thinking their neighbor’s half-mad.
“I walk in my garden and basically hammer on things,” Zur says. He’s also been known to use a cello bow on a garden chair – which, he tells us, produces a sound that’s “shrill as hell.” And if those same neighbors happen to peek into Zur’s house, they might even catch the composer at the piano… but it won’t be like any recital they’ve ever seen. “I cruelly exploit the piano by hitting the strings with open hands and even biting the strings,” Zur laughs. It’s all in a day’s work for the multi-award-winning composer. Having written and produced the scores for the Fallout series starting with Fallout Tactics, Zur returns to Fallout 4, bringing his unique and evocative sounds with him. And, once again, Zur will do whatever it takes to create the distinctive soundscapes that are such an integral part of the Fallout experience. Even if it means occasionally disturbing the neighbors. Warming UpKeep in mind that Zur isn’t just seeking inspiration from his patio furniture. The combination of non-traditional instruments with traditional melodic orchestrations has become a signature element of the Fallout score. While there are recognizable melodies – including the main theme (more on that in a bit) – Fallout 4’s score is more about adventuring through soundscapes, Zur explains. Working with the team at Bethesda Game Studios, Zur crafts unique soundscapes to fit the different environments. “In this way we provide a different musical experience that is not necessarily very thematic but is something very memorable,” Zur says. In other words, it’s about signaling to the player where they are, why they’re there, and helping reinforce the emotional dimensions of the Fallout 4 story. But what specifically does that mean in terms of the Fallout 4 score? And how is it different from previous Fallout scores? For Zur, it’s about capturing the humanity of the game. From his first meeting with Audio Director Mark Lampert and Game Director Todd Howard, Zur felt that this game – more than any previous Fallout – is a very personal story. Which is why Zur suggested having the piano play a prominent role in the game’s score, as he felt the piano could capture the more personal nature of Fallout 4. “I have a very nice grand piano at home, and I recorded myself playing the main theme,” Zur says. Todd’s first reaction was mixed: He liked the idea of the piano, but he found the actual sound to be too bright, bordering on harsh. Todd and Mark wanted something warmer. “So I created a combination between a real piano and an electric piano sound,” Zur says. “A sound that is really round and not bright at all but very lush.” When Zur played this for Todd and Mark, both of them immediately knew this was what they wanted. “So following that lead on, there are multiple times that I use this,” Zur says. “You also hear it first in the main theme. This is not a mistake or just a random choice. The piano will stay with us throughout the whole score.” Sense of PlaceA uniquely modified piano sound is all well and good, but what about that shrill-as -hell garden chair along with all the other banging around? It’s just one of the three major elements that constitute the soundscapes of Fallout: classical instruments; electronic instruments; and a non-musical instrument or an ethnic/primitive instrument. The goal, Zur explains, is for players to hear a particular combination of these instruments and know where they are. “For example, in some parts of the game we decided that the right feel would be more orchestral, but the lead instrument is low accordion,” Zur says. “Other areas, I sampled myself playing this unusual improvised ocarina, which gives all this airiness and shrillness.” Listen to the Main Theme and The Last Mariner from the Fallout 4 score Wait, back up a second… accordion? Yep. It was an idea that came directly from Lampert. “Mark always has these… thoughts,” Zur says. “Sometimes he will ask for an instrument that I wouldn’t even think about.” Having worked together for a long time, though, the two of them have developed a deep and trusting relationship – one in which Zur is able to deliver the music he thinks works best based on Lampert’s general direction, and one in which any feedback or fine-tuning is met with open arms. So when Lampert suggested the accordion to help define the sound of a particular area, Zur was willing to give it a try. “It was really funny,” Zur recalls. “I mean, we’re talking very serious music here. We’re talking the Commonwealth. Some of the cues have English and Irish elements to capture the color of the Commonwealth. The accordion, though, is a French and Eastern European instrument that to many sounds happy and almost quirky. But guess what? This unique, low accordion sound became one of the signature points of the score. So you never know! It just takes trust.” From Despair to HopeSpeaking of trust, one of the most recognizable elements of the Fallout score is the main theme itself. Which had us wondering: what makes it such a power and effective way to bring people into the Fallout world? “I originally composed the main theme for Fallout 3,” Zur says. “We basically use two chords. That’s to reflect the dualism in Fallout: the despair of war – but also the hope for the future. In Fallout we’re always torn between the despair and the darkness and all the dangers that are lurking in the world, and the hope to build a better world.” To capture this duality, Zur took two keys and combined them together. “What we’re getting basically is this minor chord leading to a major chord – or a major chord that almost acts like a minor chord leading to a major chord. These two chords combined – always the minor and the major together – give us this bittersweet Fallout feel.” It’s this dualism – the somber sounds of a minor chord leading the bright optimism of a major chord – that defines the Fallout theme. “It’s the signature of Fallout,” Zur says. “You start from the bleak and you go to the hope. Very simplistic but works like a charm every time.” The Journey AheadWhat else can fans look forward to when they hear Inon Zur’s score? “For me, again, the most important things are: where are we in the story, and where do we really want to take the player during this journey? We can definitely create a lot of emotion, and emotional twists. We can definitely influence the player, in order to support the story, with music. But we’re mainly talking about feel. We try to attach a soundscape that will support the emotional aspects of an area.” That’s why the unique combination of instruments is so important to the Fallout 4 score. “I’m trying to create something that sounds fresh,” Zur says. “Something that sounds like the beginning.” When players first emerge from the Vault, they begin a new journey. They see a world that’s been destroyed – which is represented by the percussive “non-instruments.” But as players explore the open world, they also see nature all around them – represented by the more musical but primitive instruments. Meanwhile, the emotional aspects of the game are supported by the orchestral sounds. It’s all about the joy of discovery during a long journey ahead. Which is exactly what Zur is looking forward to when he plays Fallout 4 on November 10, 2015, when the game releases globally on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. Just like Zur explores his own garden, finding natural sounds that fit the game’s score, he plans to wander through the wasteland simply discovering what’s out there. “Probably the first thing I’m going to do after starting the game is just walk,” Zur says. “The younger players, they might look for enemies and seek out attractions… This will come if you want it or not. Let me soak it in. Let me see what’s around. Let me discover.” The hardware we play games on continues to advance at a rapid pace with exciting new graphics features. Our Creation Engine has evolved to incorporate this new technology in order to empower the artists and designers at Bethesda Game Studios to create an immersive new world. The tech team here is closely aligned with the art team, and together we carefully selected each individual feature based on specific artistic and performance goals we wanted to achieve in creating this world.
The first thing we did after Skyrim was to enhance the Creation Engine’s graphical core by adding a physically based deferred renderer. This new renderer allows us to add many more dynamic lights to every scene, and paint our surfaces with realistic materials. We want objects and characters in the world to feel tactile and grounded, and a big part of that is ensuring that these materials are distinct – that metal reflects light in a distinct manner from wood, for example. As always, our world features fully dynamic time of day and weather. To create that volumetric light spilling across the scene (sometimes called “god rays”) we worked with our friends at NVIDIA, who’ve we worked with dating back to Morrowind’s cutting-edge water. The technique used here runs on the GPU and leverages hardware tessellation. It’s beautiful in motion, and it adds atmospheric depth to the irradiated air of the Wasteland. Like all the other features here, we’ve made it work great regardless of your platform. When a rain storm rolls in, our new material system allows the surfaces of the world to get wet, and a new cloth simulation system makes cloth, hair, and vegetation blow in the wind. The player can go anywhere in the world at any time of day, so we added dynamic post-process techniques that enhance the vibrancy and color of our scenery for maximum emotional impact. Our virtual cameras received a major upgrade as well. We’re not going to spoil every improvement we’ve made, but for those of you who enjoy the technical details, here’s a sampling of what we’ve added to the latest version of the Creation Engine:
If you’re not sure what all of that means, don’t worry. What’s important is how this technology comes together with the art and gameplay of Fallout 4 to create a dynamic, immersive experience – no matter your gaming system. We pride ourselves in being a highly collaborative team, always balancing graphics, gameplay, art, and performance. We hope that when you get a chance to play the game on November 10, you’ll agree. Thank you! We can't say it enough- thank you for the amazing support you've given us. We're incredibly blessed to have so many incredible fans. You've made Fallout 4 not just our largest game launch ever, but one of the industry’s. It's beyond anything we hoped for.
Seeing and reading your stories has given our whole studio immense joy. It's amazing to see what you've done with the game, what you've discovered, and what you've built! We know there's even more to come; the game is full of hidden gems and ways it can be played. For some, the freedom the game offers can be overwhelming. We know the game throws a lot on you at once, so take your time. There are many moments of “How does this work? What do I do to survive?” and that’s how your character should be feeling as well. Those that push through should be able to look back at who they were when they stepped out of the Vault and say, “I made it. I understand this world now and it’s mine.” It's true that the freedom our games offer you can lead to unintentional consequences that are sometimes bad, when the game combines too many unexpected elements at once. Given the scale and complexity of the systems at work, especially when allowing you to build your own settlements, we're happy that Fallout 4 is our most robust and solid release ever, and we'd like to thank our amazing QA staff who worked as hard as anyone to break the game so we could fix it during development. But a hundred testers will never replicate the many millions playing the game now, and we're hard at work addressing the top issues. Our process for updating the game will include releasing a beta patch on Steam, followed by full release on PC, then release on the consoles. This process has worked well for us in the past and allows us to get more fixes out faster. Expect to see more updates, that are smaller and more frequent, than a few big ones. This allows us to make sure each fix is working right, as any change can have unintentional side effects in a game this huge. We expect the first beta patch to be up next week. If you have feedback or issues to let us know about, contact our support staff here. Thanks again for everything. We look forward to our continued journeys together. Bethesda Game Studios Following total atomic annihilation, the rebuilding of this great nation of ours may fall to you. That’s why Vault-Tec has prepared this educational video series for you to better understand the seven defining attributes that make you S.P.E.C.I.A.L.! Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck – all of these attributes will impact how you survive and thrive aboveground. Today we’ve released the first video in the series – starting, of course, with Strength. Study it carefully to ensure your survival and to discover what makes you S.P.E.C.I.A.L. And be sure to check back in a week for the next video in the series. |
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