Fallout 76 is one of the best examples of a live service game launching in a poor state but finding its audience after a ton of work from the development team. The game has continued to improve over the years, which allowed it to capitalize on the wave of players jumping in after watching the Fallout TV series earlier this year. However, we know that developer Bethesda will eventually move on to the next game in the mainline franchise and release Fallout 5. With that in mind, some players have wondered if Fallout 76 will be sunsetted by Bethesda so the developers can focus on new projects. A recent interview with director Todd Howard confirms that FO76 players don’t need to worry.
The new information comes from an interview Howard did with YouTuber MrMattyPlays. The biggest reveal from that interview was that Bethesda’s space adventure Starfield is planning annual updates, but Howard also spoke a bit about the Fallout franchise as well. Matty asked if Fallout 5 is going to be held back because the team fears its impact on the Fallout 76 player count. Howard pointed out that the team has a good reason to believe that won’t be the case due to its own back catalog.
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“Skyrim is still one of our most played games while The Elder Scrolls Online is celebrating [its] tenth anniversary and going really well,” Howard said. “Even when we update those games, they don’t really cannibalize each other. Then you see it with Fallout 3 hitting number one in the charts and then 76 right behind it.”
With those real-world examples in mind, Howard says, “When there’s another Fallout, [a] classically single-player game, my expectation is 76 is just as healthy as it is today.” In other words, there’s no reason to expect Fallout 76 to fall off when the team announces Fallout 5, so Bethesda doesn’t see a reason to worry about it.
Of course, we’re still likely several years away from Fallout 5. Bethesda’s next major game will be The Elder Scrolls 6, though that game only entered active production in 2023 after Starfield’s launch. We probably won’t see that game for a few years, and Fallout 5‘s production won’t start until after TES6 is released. So, it’s certainly possible that plans for Fallout 76 could change quite a bit before Fallout 5 launches.
Fallout 76 is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms.
