In a post made this morning, Bethesda outlined its plans for a year of Fallout 4 DLC, and gave some specific info on the content packs that will be released over the next few months.
The largest of these, Far Harbor, arrives in May for $24.99. It will lead the player (and companion Nick Valentine) "on a search for a young woman and a secret colony of synths." Bethesda promises a large, new environment (the titular island of Far Harbor off the coast of Maine), some conflict between synths and the Children of Atom, and, of course, new gear. To be honest, I'm a little lukewarm on this pitch: My favorite Fallout story DLC has always been the sort that introduces new factions and explores fresh ideas. While I really liked the synth stuff in Fallout 4, I'm also ready to see that world through a new narrative lens.
If you don't want to wait until May to get more Fallout, you can pick up the Automatron DLC in March for $9.99 or the Wasteland Workshop pack in April for $4.99. The former fills the Commonwealth with "a horde of evil robots ... including the devious Robobrain," and lets players harvest robotic parts in order to build their own custom companions. Wasteland Workshop will include new settlement building designs and materials and a new enemy-capturing system. The press release says, without a hint of irony, that you can tame "live creatures--from raiders to Deathclaws--and then make them fight each other, or even your other settlers. Ah yes, my Fallout 4 character: General of the Minutemen, friend of synths, hero of Diamond City, and bloodsport ringmaster.
(But real talk, I am excited for the new settlement building stuff. Sorry, not sorry.)
Throughout the rest of the year, Bethesda will deliver "more than $60 worth of new Fallout adventures and features," though given the hodge-podge mess of prices in this first splash of DLC, that number isn't very useful. Does that mean that there's another two "major" DLC releases and a few more settlement design packs? Or one additional big story DLC, and a bunch of The Sims-style "stuff packs"? Hard to tell.
In any case, because of the increased amount of DLC on the way, Bethesda is also increasing the price of the game's season pass from $29.99 to $49.99 on March 1. If you've already purchased the pass, there's no change, you'll still get everything. And if you buy it before March 1, you'll get the $29.99 price, too.
Even if you don't get any of the DLC, there's some free content headed your way. The company has been tweeting about a free, major update to the game's Survival Mode, which will add "food, sleep, diseases, danger, and more." Bethesda will also continue to offer technical support for the game, which has been receiving some much needed fixes in the recent weeks. Finally, we should also see the mod-building Creation Kit, which Bethesda explicitly says will "allow you to create and play mods absolutely free," so I'm guessing we won't see any more experiments in paid mods from Bethesda in the near future.
I haven't gone back to Fallout 4 in the new year, but I'm curious about at least some of this content. At the very least, it will be an excuse for me to finally pick up the PC version of the game and start building basketball courts across the wasteland all over again.