I recently wrote about Fallout Shelter (Free) in my latest column for The Carter Crater, and discussed why I thought it was a game that had an intelligent launch, and should inspire other publishers in their mobile efforts. Coincidentally, GamesIndustry.biz did an interview with Bethesda vice president of marketing Pete Hines, and he seems to be aware that they had to be careful with how they launched Fallout Shelter:

If we tried to do this last year without announcing what Bethesda Game Studios was doing [Fallout 4 for consoles and PC] and said, ‘Oh we’re doing a game and it’s on mobile and it’s called Fallout Shelter,’ we’d probably get lynched, right? There would be pitchforks at the gate. ‘That’s not the Fallout we asked for, you bastards!’ But doing it this way, they’re like, ‘I’m getting what I want and oh, by the way, while I wait here’s this other free thing that’s fun to play.’ So part of it is just how do we not get ourselves killed and make it a success? This felt like the better version of that.

A very prescient insight, because people would have revolted. That someone at a major publisher seems to recognize this, and that the core gamer audience needs to be assuaged that free-to-play isn’t here to take over their lives…yet…is smart. It also leaves me hopeful for their future mobile efforts, that they’ll still be worthwhile, if they’re as good as Fallout Shelter and as intelligently planned out as this was.

Additionally, on the topic of the long-term viability of Fallout Shelter, which was called into question by one of our commenters, Hines says that they’re planning on doing some marketing and content updates for the game. Which is smart – the hype will eventually completely die off, and players will demand more things to do in their vaults.