The latest entry into the Fallout series, Fallout 76, seems to be one of the most unique yet. Serving as a prequel to the franchise, it is an “entirely online” experience, with new gameplay features added to complement the multiplayer aspects. While the game is completely online, according to Todd Howard, it is possible to play through the story and level up without the assistance of other players.
There has been a number of questions posed to Bethesda due to how different this entry is to others in the series. In an interview with Metro, Pete Hines, vice president of public relations and marketing, had answers to a question many have been asking since Fallout 76 was revealed to be online. When Pete Hines was asked this question, specifically asked how long he envisioned Fallout 76 lasting, he answered “Forever.”
I’m not being ironic. Like, forever. Because other people have said, ‘Is your timeline two years or five years?’ And I said, ‘Well, they’re still playing Morrowind and you go online and look at how many people are playing Fallout 4 and Skyrim. Those games have been out for four and seven years, and there are literally hundreds of thousands of people playing those games every single day, every single month.
Pete Hines has made it clear that Bethesda expects Fallout 76 to last an incredibly long amount of time, but a point mentioned later in the interview suggests that there are no plans cemented for post-launch content. A clear point was made by Hines in stating “We have some ideas for this and that, but let’s see what people want more of. Let’s see what they respond to and support that”. It should be mentioned that Bethesda has had experience with online games in the past, specifically with The Elder Scrolls Online which has been active since 2014, giving credence to the comments made by Pete Hines.
Fallout 76 will release on November 14, 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.