Free-to-play mobile hit Fallout Shelter's roughly two months of iOS exclusivity comes to a close on Aug. 13, developer Bethesda Softworks announced over the weekend. Along with its arrival on Android, the game will also receive a few new features that will roll out on both platforms.
Fallout Shelter got off to a fast start when it was launched last month. The mobile management game drew in about $5.1 million during its first two weeks out, according to SuperData Research.
The game's critical acclaim underscores the importance of a strong brand in a relatively crowded market for games, according to the research firm.
"More significant than the publisher's success is the notion that core gaming fans proved to be willing customers for a free-to-play mobile game," said SuperData. "By emphasizing unobtrusive monetization and offline playability, Bethesda managed to earn the respect of a consumer group that is otherwise highly critical of free-to-play monetization."
Why Care? The 'Fallout Shelter' Phenomenon
No one likes to wait for games during soft launches and timed periods of exclusivity. While some Android fans may feel a bit slighted, Fallout Shelter is a labor of love—although it's a marketing tool for Fallout 4 as well—and it's a product Bethesda plans to support for a long time.
Some Fallout Shelter players have complained about the game's lack of a sound end game, but fewer, it seems, have indicated that they haven't been having a blast playing it.
When Fallout Shelter arrives on Android in the middle of next month, Bethesda is updating the game to include new attacks, units and enemies.
Bethesda's vice president of marketing, Pete Hines, said the studio had been thinking about developing Fallout Shelter for a while, but wanted to wait until the time was right and such a game would be a good fit. The company took its time with this one.
"If we just start saying yes [to more mobile games], we start getting into this thing where eight games will fail and two will succeed," Hines added.
"That's not why Fallout Shelter was great," added Hines. "People appreciate the game because it doesn't have our hand in your pocket. It did monetization in a way that people didn't have a problem with."
On Aug. 13, Fallout Shelter hits the Google Play Store.
Very excited for Android users to begin playing #FalloutShelter on August 13th. pic.twitter.com/FYXvyIzaAj
— BethesdaGameStudios (@BethesdaStudios) July 24, 2015
