FailOut 76
On November 14, 2018, the next hotly anticipated installment in the beloved Fallout franchise was released. It promised incredible new gameplay, new ways to play, more options, interactivity, and a working product.
It delivered none of that. Well, almost none.
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The story of Fallout 76’s failure is one of corporate overpromising, developer incompetence, and a fanbase who fundamentally did not want this game. But that’s not what this story is about. Fallout 76 has made a massive turn around and many who first purchased the game and were severely disappointed, have come back and realized that the game is now actually quite close to being what they initially paid for.
Fallout 76 is fundamentally a Bethesda product, which means it will never quite work as intended. But at launch, the game was nearly unplayable at points. Screens blacking out, screen tearing, clipping through walls and floors. Totally unacceptable for a AAA video game title. And Bethesda knew this. Which is why for the next 7 years they have been working tirelessly to improve the game and get it to the level they promised. And they have done a fine job of it. The game is not perfect by any means, but it is now becoming the game they said it would be.
They continually add new content, with a new update coming in just over a month, hot off the heels of the last major content update just a few months ago. They’ve added things like expeditions to other parts of the war-torn world, and the ability to play as a Ghoul for the first time in first person fallout history. These major additions have greatly improved the game and has reinstilled much faith in Bethesda after they hit an all time low after Fallout 76’s failed release. Have Bethesda learned from this failure? No, not really. Starfield was a flop for similar reasons to Fallout 76 just on a less public scale because they talked about it less. Bethesda still has much to work on as a company, but Fallout 76 might not be one of them.
