Summary
Bethesda Game Studios Executive Producer Todd Howard said that the developer currently has aFallout 76update roadmap spanning “several years” in the future. However, the industry veteran also hinted thatFallout 76could keep receiving new free content for much longer than that.
October 23 will mark the sixth anniversary of the live-service RPG’s release. Despite its troubled launch, the game is looking fairly healthy nowadays, with tens of thousands of people still exploring Appalachia on a daily basis. That’s in no small part because of its consistent support, which saw Bethesda put out nearly 50 updates since the RPG’s debut. The latest such content drop arrived on June 12, marking the start of Season 17 and thearrival of the first-everFallout 76map expansion.
Bethesda Will ‘Keep Going’ With Fallout 76 Updates
The mid-June update will be followed by many others, as Bethesda already has a wide variety of new content in the pipeline. That’s according to Todd Howard, who said as much in a recent interview with YouTuber MrMattyPlays. Reflecting on what’s next for the game, the executive asserted that the developer will “keep going” withFallout 76updates, not least because the game is currently more popular than it has ever been. Asked whether he could commit to a more concrete time frame, Howard revealed that Bethesda currently has a “kind of internal roadmap” that spans “the next several years.”
Todd Howard Expects Fallout 76 Will Still Be ‘Healthy’ by the Time the Next Single-Player Fallout Is Out
The executive’s comments appear to confirm that the live-service RPG will keep receiving new content until at least 2026. But Bethesda’s current plans for the game may be even further-reaching than that, with Howard saying he expectsFallout 76to remain “as healthy as it is today” by the time the series receives its next entry. The official was careful not to call that upcoming installmentFallout 5, having instead opted to describe it as the next “classically single-playerFallout.” His remark tracks with one recent report suggesting thatthe nextFalloutgame may not be developed by Bethesdabut instead be an outsourced spin-off, much like Obsidian Entertainment’sFallout: New Vegaswas.
Taking that rumor at face value, it’s possible that the next single-player entry in the series may arrive much sooner thanFallout 5, which isn’t expected to hit the market until the 2030s. Even so, with AAA game development cycles being five-plus years long nowadays, a hypotheticalFalloutproject that started development this year still likely wouldn’t be out before the late 2020s. Paired with Howard’s forecast thatFallout 76will still be going strongat that time, it would appear that the game has a realistic chance of continuing to receive updates even after it turns ten.
Fallout 76 To Receive More Free Skyline Valley Content
Elsewhere during the interview, the executive confirmed that there’s another part of Skyline Valley that has yet to be released. He also suggested that Bethesda may be done withFallout 76Expeditions, having described proper map expansions like Skyline Valley as much more meaningful content drops. Howard concluded his thoughts on the game by confirming that the developer has no plans to paywall playable content moving forward, stating that its existing business model revolving around Fallout 1st subscriptions and the Atomic Shop is “working awesome.”
Fallout 76
WHERE TO PLAY
Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of Skyrim and Fallout 4, welcome you to Fallout 76. Twenty-five years after the bombs fell, you and your fellow Vault Dwellers—chosen from the nation’s best and brightest – emerge into post-nuclear America on Reclamation Day, 2102. Play solo or join together as you explore, quest, build, and triumph against the wasteland’s greatest threats. Explore a vast wasteland, devastated by nuclear war, in this open-world multiplayer addition to the Fallout story. Experience the largest, most dynamic world ever created in the legendary Fallout universe. Expand southward to Skyline Valley – a brand-new region of Appalachia. Investigate the cause of the electric storm circling overhead and unveil the mystery around Vault 63 and its dwellers, including a shocking new Ghoul type – The Lost.
