Update (June 3, 2015): Just over an hour before the countdown clock was set to expire, fallout4.com briefly went live with the below teaser image, showing some sort of desert workshop motif underneath the words "Bethesda Game Studios Presents: Fallout 4 - Welcome Home." Before the site was pulled down within minutes of the apparent mistaken posting, it offered preorder links for Xbox One, PS4, and PC versions of the game, and urged readers to tune in to Bethesda's pre-E3 press conference.

A placeholder link to a video teaser for the game was not made live alongside the rest of the site, but we expect it will be available at 10am ET as the countdown clock at fallout.bethsoft.com actually expires.

Further update: A still image (below) taken from the still locked YouTube trailer page include ruins with a marquee featuring the word "Scollay." Many are taking this as a hint of the game's Boston setting, via a reference to Scollay Square, once a part of the city's downtown. That setting would gel with supposed Fallout 4 planning documents leaked to Kotaku back in 2013.

Yet another update: The live trailer, below, starts with quick cuts between a shiny '50s-style suburban home (complete with hover-robot) and the post-war wreckage of that home, with a stray dog sniffing through the emptiness. As a radio reporter intones about "confirmed reports of nuclear detonations," a voice that sounds a lot like Ron Perlman pipes in with, "My god, our soldiers were right. War... war never changes."

The rest of the trailer contrasts scenes of survivors running for Vault 111 with the desolate ruins of Boston, filled with mutated zombies, armored soldiers, and the odd robot. In the end, the dog finds a partner armed with a rifle and a familiar Pip-Boy. "Let's go, pal," he suggests.

One more update: The Bethesda online store (which is operated by ThinkGeek) briefly listed a "TBA 2015" release date for Fallout 4, as seen in this Google Cache of the sale page. Other retailers such as Amazon and Gamestop have also put up tentative "December 31, 2015" release dates for their pre-orders. This is the best indication we have of a release date target for the title.

Original story: We're usually a bit reluctant to write about news that amounts to an announcement that an actual news announcement is coming soon. But when the announcement in question regards the much-loved Fallout series, we'll make a rare exception.

So here we are, announcing that Bethesda has set up a countdown clock at fallout.bethesda.com (and fallout4.com) letting us all watch the seconds tick by until... well, we're not sure exactly. The only hints that we're even expecting a Fallout announcement at all are those URLs and the background "Indian head" test pattern familiar to anyone who has seen a recent Fallout loading screen. We'll all find out what it means together when the countdown runs out at 10am EDT Wednesday morning, I guess.

Bethesda recently announced that it would be hosting its first-ever pre-E3 press conference on June 14 , so it makes some sense that it would have big news to share for one of its biggest franchises. A teaser announcement of a newtomorrow could help soften the ground for a fuller reveal at that press conference. That would be similar to the extremely short Doom 4 teaser that came out last month, ahead of a promised longer trailer at the press conference.

If Bethesda wanted to be extra trollish, it could replace this countdown clock with an image of a Pip Boy and yet another countdown clock, leading to a new vague image every day until E3 starts. Or it could simply announce a "new-generation anniversary remake" for Fallout 3 and New Vegas, rather than the proper Fallout 4 everyone has been waiting for. Frankly, I'm not sure which of those options would piss fans off more.