Watching https://youtu.be/rRh5D6UecR0?t=10m45s video, starting from around 10:45, something struck me when Pete was talking about the difference in context between Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.

He says: "What if we could give both the player and the player's character the context of how it used to be? Right? Because the guy coming out of the bunker in Fallout 3 doesn't have that context, he was born there, he lived his whole life there. And so if you can, you know, can you make it even more dramatic and emotionally impactful that, to the player and the player character, it was just a minute ago that I was at home on a Saturday [morning] with my wife and kid at home, blue skies and beautiful day out, and then the next thing I know I'm emerging into that exact same world and it is destroyed almost beyond recognition".

Notice that he says it was "just a minute ago" and then "the next thing I know". Meaning that the 200 years in between went past without actually being experienced by our protagonist.

Could be, or Pete could be referring to the player themselves having just experienced the pre-war era, and then being thrust into the wasteland. Though obviously I think cryostasis is involved.

Maybe you're right and I'm just reading a little too much into this comment. But the way Pete hesitates at one point does make it sound like he wasn't supposed to mention it...

It has to be either cryo or he's a android or a clone running on someone else's memories ala The Sixth Day.....i don't see how they could do it otherwise.

He might be an android who was deactivated for a while.

Of course there are cyrogenics, there's even a weapon called the Cyrolator!

And in the demo, when 'Howard' learns that 200 years had gone by, he says, "No. No, that's not possible. I wasn't out for that long!"

No one has come out and actually confirmed cryogenics is the case, but it's assumed. Mostly due to the Kotaku script leaks.

In the portion of the trailer where the protagonist is playing around making weapons, at the point where the Bladed Aluminum Baseball Bat is highlighted in inventory, two slots below the highlighted bat is a Glow-Sighted Cryolator Pistol. This suggests that some form of Cryonics technology exists. Whether that means the protagonist is frozen or not is another story but it does lend credence to the idea.

{Edit}

Take it from me, betting against the OP is not where the smart money is.

I totally forgot about the cryonic weapons that we've already seen in the footage! I've been so busy working on the update for my full-scale storyline theory. Will post it up as soon as I'm done, and I have a feeling you're going to like it...

Well either its a Tranquility lounger case or its a Deep freeze thing or its a time portal thing,I suspect some kind of mix of one and 2

Wow.. I didn't think of the lounger as one of the possibilities.

If it is a Tranquility lounger thing, your spouse and child may not have even existed. They could just be implanted imagery.

So many possibilities there.

And why would Codworth recognize you, if it was just virtual reality?

Codsworth was programmed with the same past you experienced while in the chamber?

Vault 111 I think had something to do with cryogenics. Regardless, he's from the pre-war era and that's pretty cool because the previous vault dwellers we got to play as were all descendents and all grew up in the vault. It will be an interesting perspective.

If we had to go by that leak awhile back then sure, plus it makes sense of you surviving unless they go the android or clone route. But seeing as the leaked art for the survivor looks exactly like the one that is being shown off so far, and that the character is also voiced which also came from the leak; we also see the same minutemen in what looks like a museum lead by Preston Garvy which was also mentioned in the leak. So in short, odds are most likely.

I think that at very plot-specific moments the pre-war elements will also come into play in the main portion of the game.

Just an observation, but looking back at what I suggested in the OP, there is another comment made very shortly after in the very same video. One of the interviewees is joking about the idea of playing as an (estimated) 230 year old man. Pete then jokes back saying that this is actually how they limit the size of the game-world as it would take you so long to get anywhere, but he actually says 235 years, which is very specific. Now many people believe, myself included, that the whole 200 year thing is just an approximation. I actually believe that the actual figure is around 207 years, which would put us 3 years after the events of NV. Taking this into account, does this mean that out protagonist couple would be around 35 (which looks about right) or is Pete perhaps telling us something else?

If could be the ultimate plot hole creator...TIME TRAVEL!!!!!!!!!!

A couple more ideas are that it could be like the movie Surrogates and the guy is in a pod and remotely controls a synthetic copy of himself. Or it's all a digital illusion like the Matrix, Tranquility Lane and Operation Anchorage.

My idea (that it may be some kind of combo Cryogenics and Tranquility life support lounger) is based on the idea that combining both techs would keep you alive and nont ageing and not going insane from sensory deprivation, he may very well have been living a simulated life the entire time he was in Tran-genics. we dont know yet.

I'm definitely inclined to believe that cryogenics was Vault 111's experiment. Well, that or general salvaged alien technology (the aliens from Mothership Zeta had cryo-pods). Either way, I feel that cryogenics is the only likely explanation. From what we learn in The Replicated Man, the androids we see are more likely a post-war technology developed at The Institute than something that could have been perfected before the Great War. Cloning was Vault 108's experiment, so that leaves us with cryogenics as the reason the PC woke up 200 years later.

We live the pre-war, get cryo'd, wake up 200 years later...

Eh, I am perfectly fine with this setup. A fish out of water discovering a new wild west...er...east.

The interesting thing is that in saying this, Pete has actually ruled out the possibility of 'time travel', which only really leaves cryogenics as a viable option. If you had a device that could let you skip forward 200 years into the future, it would be like going through a doorway as far as the observer would see it. You would have completely by-passed the 200 years. But if you were cryogenically frozen, you would have in fact 'lived through' the 200 years, albeit in a frozen state so that your body didn't age.

As for the theories about our being a surrogate, android or something similar, remember that Pete refers to the protagonist as a 235 year old man. (as in human)

It could be similar to how Mr. House was done?

Is it too much to just want a...simple "Got put in a Cryo Pod that opened 200 years later" thing?