Bethesda Game Studios is set to release Starfield sometime in 2023, which will be the first new IP the developer has released in over 25 years. The studio has also announced that The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development, although that game will likely arrive years later. With these major upcoming releases and the initial negative light applied to Fallout 76, fans felt that Bethesda may not want to continue supporting the franchise for a while. Some believe the damage has already been done, but after four years of updates and over a dozen seasonal expansions later, Fallout 76 continues to grow its player base and reach new milestones.

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When Bethesda Game Studios acquired the license to publish Fallout games and released Fallout 3 in 2008, it marked a new beginning for the franchise. Fallout 3 performed well in terms of sales and gained overwhelming praise from critics and fans alike. Although when Obsidian Entertainment’s Fallout: New Vegas was released in 2010 it didn’t sell or review as well as Fallout 3, over time it’s gone on to become many fans’ favorite in the franchise. Fallout 4 was released in 2015 and is currently the best-selling mainline Fallout game. However, many fans felt the story, choices, factions, and other RPG elements were a major step down and represented the start of a decline for the franchise.

Enter Fallout 76, where after its initial reveal, public perception was a mixed bag with plenty of skepticism regarding its online-only premise. Fans would soon get to experience it for themselves in the B.E.T.A. (Break-it Early Test Application) just weeks before launch, and that’s when it became clear that Fallout 76 would release in a near-unplayable state. The game launched with an absurd amount of bugs and performance issues, and it severely lacked the content expected of a live service game.

Its open world may have been massive, but players complained that Fallout 76 felt empty due to the lack of human NPCs. This would prove to be a massive disappointment for Fallout fans since they felt such a major component of all the previous games was no longer present. The problems didn’t stop at the game itself either, as the Collector’s Edition had its own slew of controversies with cheap materials and misleading marketing.

Fallout 76’s Launch Didn’t Determine Its Fate

Even with all the controversy and problems at launch, Bethesda Game Studios somehow turned Fallout 76 around. The developers successfully pulled a “No Man’s Sky” by adding a constant stream of content and updates to improve the game over time. One of its earlier updates, Wastelanders, was potentially its most significant, as it added human NPCs to interact with, along with companions and improved quest designs.

Since the Wastelanders update seemingly allowed the developers to step back into familiar territory, players have continued to come back and stay with each new update. However, the game is still online-only, so this approach is still a turn-off for many hardcore Fallout fans. It also creates a valid concern about whether gamers will lose their progress forever once servers shut down. Even so, future Bethesda Game Studios titles could potentially have multiplayer components and the Fallout franchise as a whole is in a much better place.

Since Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 are on the horizon, it’s still unlikely fans will hear about the next Fallout game for at least a few more years. Still, players continue to show their devotion to the franchise, and Fallout recently celebrated its 25th anniversary by adding a fan-favorite location to Fallout 76, The Pitt. With Fallout 76 passing another milestone of over 13 million players, the post-apocalyptic RPG franchise has a brighter future than ever.

Fallout 76 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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