Winter is Coming?

Oh, boy, did the internet erupt this morning when the (possibly fake?) Fallout 4 teaser site updated to show a new countdown and morse code message, causing fans to wind themselves up into a frenzy of comments and counter-comments, because nobody knows if it’s real or not.

Bethesda Softworks, the producer of the popular series, has remained mum, putting out only a “We aren’t making a comment” to Jason Schreier over at Kotaku (Mr. Schreier also eloquently points out all the reasons why the countdown site isn’t real in that article, if you’d like a clear argument).

The rumors have been flying ever since the teaser site went live a few weeks ago. While the site can be traced back to Zenimax, the Bethesda parent company, there are inconsistencies, as this Reddit thread notes. On the other hand, Bethesda did trademark the game in Europe. On the other hand (we’re rapidly running out of hands, here) the countdown on the teaser site doesn’t match up to any known Bethesda announcement dates or gaming events (the VGX awards on Spike are the next big industry event, and that’s on December 7th) and the Morse code on the site simply spells out: “OZ De SZ Msg + EF Is Hit EF is Hit K” over and over, which, as Andy Chalk points out at Escapist Magazine, is hardly helpful, though more Redditers have decoded it as “Bridgeport this is Concord – Quabbin is hit – repeat – Quabbin is hit.”

For the now the debate rages between hopeful believers and scoffing cynics–what do you think? We here at Geekscape are hoping for the best (because Fallout 4 would just be awesome…) while remembering rule #1 of the internet: never trust anything on the Internet.

More news as we get it–put your thoughts in the comments!