Fallout 76 Multiplayer is “Not What Everybody Expects," Plus More on Solo Play

*Update to the server size mentioned in the video: 12-30 players*

Bethesda had an absolutely killer E3 showcase with reveals for every franchise we could possible hope for. With a showcase that thousands and thousands of gamers are calling their "best one in years," some even saying ever, there was a lot to enjoy. Not only that, but the developers delivered on their promise of an in-depth reveal of Fallout 76 and for the most part fans are interested in seeing their much smaller take on the "MMO" genre. Though, predictably, not everyone was happy.

The map of Fallout 76 promises to be four times bigger than that of Fallout 4 (which was huge). Pair that with the fact that the online experience will pair your with a player size of 12-30 ("dozens"), the chances of running into enemy players are slimmer than you'd think. Still, many are thinking of this move as an assault on single player despite the many assurances that it can absolutely played solo with no problem. A lot of that is do to misconceptions about how it will actually work, luckily VP of Marketing Pete Hines is here to clarify a few things.

In a recent interview with GameReactor, Hines himself told people that Fallout 76 isn't what many are expecting - especially with those less than flattering predictions. He also told the site that he was comfortable with where the studio is in terms of Single-player games, mentioning:

"Well, first of all, as a publisher I am extremely comfortable with where we are in single-player games, between all of the stuff that we did last year and all of the things we just announced, right," Hines explained. "We didn't just announce Prey last year as a wholly single-player game, but then we just released brand new DLC for it and a ton of free updates for the game. Wolfenstein is a single-player game that we wanted to add co-op to because we figured with the twin sisters, rather than her just being AI, that would be cool [...] Rage 2, Doom Eternal - all of these games are embracing and doing single-player, as is Fallout 76."

As far as playing by yourself goes, he also added "When I play, I'm not on the schedule of a lot of people that I work with or my friends or my kids, so I end up playing any kind of game that's online by myself anyway. I've played Fallout 76 almost entirely that way myself because that's kind of my preference, and I sort of want to see what that feels like."

"But the truth is this game is not what everybody expects or immediately jumps to. I understand when you hear 'online' or you hear 'multiplayer' or 'PvP' that people jump to 'well, it's an MMO' or 'it's a free-for-all where everybody's just shooting each other' or 'I'm gonna get griefed constantly by other players'. And the fact is, this just doesn't fit into the mould of anything else, because that's what Bethesda Game Studios does."

There's nothing wrong with a little boundary pushing, and Bethesda has more than proven that they known how to weave a good tale. To read the rest of the interview, including more about the challenge system, you can check out the full interview right here.