Fallout 76, the first MMO in the Fallout universe, had a difficult launch in 2018, although the ratings on Steam have since recovered. One of the participants reveals how he experienced that time and why he left Bethesda after 14 years.
What was the deal with Fallout 76? The first MMO in the popular Fallout series had a difficult reputation from the start. Many players actually wished for the single-player sequel Fallout 5, and there was frustration over a pre-order edition without a game and missing NPCs.
At the release in November 2018, Fallout 76 thus faced pretty mixed reviews. A former Bethesda employee now reveals how he experienced that time.
Developer says no one expected so much criticism
What kind of employee is this? Nathan Purkeypile worked for Bethesda from 2007 to 2021 and was a lead artist involved in the great open worlds of Fallout 3 and 4. However, while working on Bethesda’s current major title Starfield, Purkeypile decided to leave the studio.
Now, the Bethesda veteran works as a solo developer on his own game, “The Axis Unseen.” In the well-known Noclip podcast on YouTube, Purkeypile recently talked about the time after the release of Fallout 76 (via 3D Juegos).
How was it back then? The launch of Fallout was terrible, according to Purkeypile; there is no need to sugarcoat it. “We were kind of the villains of the internet, the most hated thing ever,” said the developer.
The negativity was pretty difficult for everyone on the team to handle, Purkeypile reports. They were aware that the game had issues, but they probably didn’t expect the volume and intensity of the criticism.
Purkeypile says he had advocated for adding NPCs to the game, but he also didn’t think that their absence would be the worst thing ever, “as if someone had killed a puppy.”
Here you can see the whole video, starting at 5:46 it’s about Fallout 76.
Was there also something positive? As lead artist, the huge map of Fallout 76 was under Purkeypile’s responsibility. It was one of the few aspects of the game that was actually praised at launch. Players said, “This game is bad and I hate it, but that’s a cool map, that’s cool art.” In this memory, pride can be heard from the developer’s words.
Overall, the experience was one of the reasons why he prefers to be an indie developer now: No matter what he does, he knows he will probably never make the internet as angry as he did back then.
How is Fallout 76 doing today? On Steam, the MMO now has a solid rating of 75% recommendations from nearly 50,000 reviews. Just recently in December 2023, Bethesda proudly announced that they had surpassed the 17 million player mark. They also revealed how Fallout 76 will continue in 2024. They are far from done, Bethesda said.
