Bethesda must have enjoyed being rid of the long hype cycle when it dropped the existence of Fallout 4 on us without ceremony and released it a mere five months later. A consequence of being a PR maverick, however, is the tendency for people to pay very close attention to anything you say in case they can make out 'Elder Scrolls 6' in the echo of your cough. That appears to be the case when it was reported that Bethesda had three "big and crazy" projects in the works. Todd Howard has now sought to clarify the non-announcement in an interview with gamesindustry.biz ahead of GDC.

"I should have never said a number because we have so many things," Howard says. "You could add it up in different ways. You could say it's bigger or smaller. They're a long way off. I think the larger point was, no one should expect to hear about those anytime soon. We always overlap projects. We just have more going on now than we had before."

Having more going on is a product of Bethesda's new Montreal studio, and speculation is rife as to what's brewing behind those doors. The only definite that Howard is willing to offer is that the studios are "going to be doing different things", although he confesses some excitement for VR.

"We're exploring some things [in VR]. We'll see where that heads. We don't want to talk about it quite yet until we've figured some things out. My view of it is that I want everybody to enjoy the moment."

I don't like to say 'confirmed', but I see all the letters of 'F-A-L-L-O-U-T F-I-V-E' in that statement.