It seems that the developers knew that the launch of Fallout 76 would be rocky and it was expected but the game and the brand suffered the most.
Bethesda’s attempt at making an always-online game with Fallout 76 did not meet the expectations that the games that preceded it achieved and Todd Howard acknowledges that.
In a recent interview with IGN, he said that the company expected a few issues when the game was launched to the public.
He said, “We knew we were going to have a lot of bumps. That’s a difficult development; a lot of new systems and things like that. ‘Hey, we’re going to try this new thing.’ Anytime you’re going to do something new like that, you know you’re going to have your bumps; you know a lot of people might say, ‘That’s not the game we want from you.’ But we still want to be somebody that’s trying new things”.
This attempt at making something that the developers were not comfortable with did cause huge damage to the Fallout brand in itself and even Bethesda felt the ire of the people when the game was slated and reviewers lashed out at every opportunity they got.
He further stated, “That was a very difficult, difficult development on that game to get it where it was …a lot of those difficulties ended up on the screen. We knew, hey look, this is not the type of game that people are used to from us and we’re going to get some criticism on it. A lot of that–very well-deserved criticism.”
It seems that the developers have recognized their mistakes and will be more cautious in the future but it also is nice to know that the developers were ready to try out something that they hadn’t done before and the attempt in itself is commendable.
When developers step out of their comfort zones only then the gaming community will push itself to deliver never seen before content, yes there will be some failures along the way but ultimately those will be worth the effort.
Todd Howard also teased that Bethesda has “some awesome stuff” about Fallout 76 to reveal in E3 this year, so we’re hoping that they somehow resurrect the game and bring it back from the dead.
Fallout 76 is available PC, Xbox One and PS4.