This morning, a NeoGAF member discovered that Bethesda had trademarked something called Fallout: Shadow of Boston, and of course, a host of gaming sitesrushed to echo that “news,” to the point where “Shadow of Boston” was trending on Twitter this afternoon.
It’s gotten pretty widespread, so we feel like we have to debunk this. Don’t worry: Bethesda isn’t using a name that dumb for the still-unannounced Fallout 4. This one’s a fake.
The German trademark filing that's making the rounds is a hoax. This didn't come from our offices.
— Bethesda (@bethesda) November 5, 2014
Incidentally, I got a strange e-mail this morning from “Jesse,” the rumormonger I wrote about earlier this year. Jesse, who has something of a Fallout obsession, gets a kick out of making up rumors and getting people excited about things that aren’t actually true.
His e-mail, which was incomprehensible and mostly in German, appeared to claim responsibility for this one. He hasn’t responded to requests for elaboration, but this could very well be his doing, too.
The good news is that Fallout 4 is likely a Real Thing and it is likely set in Boston, as evidenced by the casting documents we reported on last year. Of course, anything can change, but chances are good that we’ll see Bethesda’s next Fallout game in the near future, even if it isn’t called Shadow of Boston.
You can reach the author of this post at [email protected] or on Twitter at @jasonschreier
