Fallout 76 is revealed in a folksy new teaser trailer - but it may not be the solo RPG you expect

Fallout 76 is the next game in the post-apocalyptic RPG series, and that's almost all we know for sure about it. After teasing a new Fallout-related announcement of some kind for the better part of a day, Bethesda finally made good on the wait with a teaser trailer for Fallout 76. You can watch it right up there - pay attention to the dates in particular.

The series retains its Americana focus with a fixation on the number "76", referring back to the year the US declared independence from Great Britain (1776) and ahead to 2076, a year before the nuclear holocaust. And the date on the Pip-Boy clock is October 27, 2102, less than three decades after the bombs dropped. If it really does take place in 2102, that would make it the earliest setting for a full Fallout game yet - the original Fallout unfolds in 2161, and further games have more or less advanced the timeline since then.

All we officially know about the game for now is contained in that trailer. We'll learn more about the game at Bethesda's E3 2018 presentation, but Kotaku reporter Jason Schreier shared a bit of what he's learned about the game from behind the scenes. 

What would an online Fallout game look like? I'll leave you to consider it (at least until we publish our big "what it means" article because you know we have that cooking too). Just remember, original series publisher Interplay planned to make a full-on Fallout MMO for the longest time before Bethesda finally got the full rights to the series in a 2012 court settlement...

Want to head back to the wasteland right now? Freshen things up a bit with our list of the best Fallout 4 mods.