Bethesda Game Studios led many fans by the hand as it announced long-awaited titles like Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6. The problem is that those games are out in the far future- even if Starfield could have current gen release. This year, we’ll have to remain content with Fallout 76, which takes the post-apocalyptic survival gameplay into an online setting.
It’s not like Bethesda hasn’t prepared for the reaction that Fallout 76 has received. However, while it’s going for a games-as-a-service model, which includes free DLC and updates funded by microtransactions, director Todd Howard wants to remind everyone that this isn’t the future of Bethesda.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz Howard said, “It doesn’t mark the future. Corporately we’ve done a mix—people forget sometimes. Elder Scrolls Online is one of the biggest online games in the world, we have Fallout Shelter which we keep updating, and Elder Scrolls: Legends.”
“Anyone who has ever said ‘this is the future and this part of gaming is dead’ has been proven wrong every single time,” he continued. “We like to try it all. For a long time we wanted to try a multiplayer game and we had this idea. We shouldn’t be afraid. We should try it.”
Bethesda’s commitment to single-player titles has been clear, as evidenced by RAGE 2 and Wolfenstein: Youngblood (which can also be played co-op) releasing in 2019, while DOOM: Eternal is also in development. Fallout 76 will have a pretty strong focus in the coming years, but traditional open-world Bethesda games are also on the way. Besides, Fallout 76 will also have single-player servers after launch, if that’s any consolation.
Fallout 76 releases on November 14th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.