Bethesda Expected More Fallout 76 Players Would Want To Murder Each Other

As the release for Fallout 76's big Wastelanders update draws nearer, Bethesda's Pete Hines has shared some of the thinking that went into the original game design in an interview with USGamer. One of the elements Hines says was misjudged by the team in particular was PVP, and how it was not as much of a priority for players as they had initially thought.

"We were a little surprised how few people wanted to take part in PvP and how many more they were interested in PvE together," Hines said. "As opposed to, 'I want to test my mettle against you and let's get into a duel.'"

Fallout 76 has had a rocky reception from the very beginning, and since release has faced continued delays to major updates--including the upcoming Wastelanders, originally intended for a 2019 release date.

Now Wastelanders is almost upon us, promising updates that will bring Fallout 76 in line with what players expect a Fallout game to be, such as human NPCs, story quests, dialog trees, and more RPG-style storytelling in general. The update will also coincide with the long-awaited release of Fallout 76 on Steam.

Although the game has been out for over a year now, Bethesda sees Wastelanders as one of the first steps in making Fallout 76 the kind of game it should be. "We have a plan. We have a roadmap that we'll be sharing before too long, probably after Wastelanders," Hines promised. "Let's get through Wastelanders and then talk about that. That will cover all the way through the end of this year."

Wastelanders will be available as a free update for all PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players on April 7, with the full game dropping on Steam on that date as well.