In September 2021, Bethesda Game Studios shut down Nuclear Winter, a battle royale mode that existed within the Fallout 76 ecosystem. It was a short-lived experiment of sorts, but the PvP-focused platform has always sat firmly in the minds of fans worldwide, even though there’s absolutely no desire from Bethesda to revitalize the mode.
At Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, I sat down with Bethesda’s Jon Rush and Bill LaCoste to learn about the future of PvP in Fallout 76, touching on the shutdown of Nuclear Winter and the potential for a similar mode to one day surface.
Will Fallout 76 Ever Have More PvP?
Nuclear Winter was an interesting mode in Fallout 76 that tried to capitalize on the success of battle royale games. At the time, the likes of Warzone, Fortnite, PUBG, and Apex Legends were all skyrocketing, and Bethesda saw the potential in Fallout 76 and ran with it, producing this new mode.
It wasn’t a long-lived platform, but almost five years later, it remains rooted in the minds of post-apocalyptic gamers everywhere.
At Summer Game Fest, I asked Bethesda directly if there are any plans at all to boost the PvP systems in Fallout 76, perhaps revisiting something like Nuclear Winter that could entertain the more bloodthirsty players out there.
Jon Rush, Creative Director, said:
The way it is right now, how PvP is set up, it’s very minor. Our community is largely not interested in PvP as much as they are in co-op. However, there are some in the community that are interested in PvP – as am I.
I’m not so sure I’d be interested in it as like, hey, I’m a level 50 going up against a level 5000 min-maxxer, you know?
If PvP were to be reintroduced, it would have to be everyone coming in on a level playing field in a very kind of non-punishing environment.
Talking about Nuclear Winter specifically, Rush outlined the inherent issues with the mode:
Nuclear Winter was really cool, that was a fun update. There were a couple of issues with it. One, it split the player population into folks playing Nuclear Winter or folks playing on Appalachia. It segmented the population.
It’s almost like its own live-service game that would need to be supported by staff for updates, bug fixes, new rewards, new modes, and those are resources that we wanted to attribute to Appalachia to continue telling that story.
Rush agreed with me that PvP has a place in Fallout 76, but suggested that, if it were to be introduced with more depth, it would ideally be an arena-style PvP offering with unique rewards, challenges, leaderboards, achievements, and so on.
Bethesda is fully aware of the discourse around Nuclear Winter, but the more accurate way of looking at it is being aware of that desire for PvP mechanics.
Do you want more PvP in Fallout 76? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that someone has remastered Fallout 3 in Unreal Engine
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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