During the Summer Game Fest event in Los Angeles, I caught up with Bethesda Game Studios’ Jon Rush and Bill LaCoste. We spoke about the ongoing success of Fallout 76, plans for the future of the franchise, and how the community feeds into everything that’s unfolding.
One topic I was eager to grill them about was the implementation of crossplay mechanics in Fallout 76, which has long been an ask from the wider community. In seven years, fans have never stopped clamouring for crossplay, but why hasn’t Bethesda given up the goods?
‘We Think About It Often’
I spoke to Jon Rush, creative director, and Bill LaCoste, lead producer, about the state of play in the world of Fallout 76. They advised me that the player count is growing all the time and now sits at around 23 million (all-time). Last year was a testament to the staying power of Fallout 76, with the game utterly soaring following the release of Prime’s Fallout TV show.
I asked the ultimate question, touching on a topic that has been debated by Fallout 76 fans since day one – when will the game go crossplay and remove those digital borders?
Bill LaCoste, lead producer, explained:
People ask us that all the time. And the thing for us, it has been more of a technical challenge for us to be able to do that. It’s not that we don’t think about it, we think about it often.
But, overall, no real plans right now to introduce crossplay, but certainly, we get asked to consider it very often, so we do.
Maybe in the future.
We also touched on whether Fallout could leave the United States in a future release, with creative director Jon Rush saying, ‘Never say never.’ That’s another widely-discussed topic in the Fallout community, with many fans wanting to know what’s happening in the rest of the world in the Fallout universe.
In Rush’s words, the team often likes to leave things up to the players to set up their own interpretations of the wider world. There’s plenty of lore there suggesting what’s happening in other countries, such as Russia, China, and the United Kingdom, but it’s unlikely we’ll ever actively explore those locations in Fallout.
Would you like to see Fallout 76 opened up with crossplay functions? Let me know on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverge, check out the news that Winds of War was a Gray Zone success
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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