Todd Howard shared some kind words about the Fallout 76 community in a new interview.
Todd was on MrMattyPlay’s YouTube channel for a new interview. Matty asked him about several of Bethesda’s games, as well as questions related to Bethesda and to Todd himself. But, Todd seemed to want to sing his player’s praises apropos of nothing.
Todd said this:
“So I just want to say, shoutout to the Fallout 76 Community.
You know, that game obviously had had a rough launch, and our community really stuck with it. And given the nature of the game where we started, which is hey, the players in this world are going to make it their own.
I can’t say enough about them. As new players come into the game, it’s the most friendly apocalypse that there could be.
And we’re hearing from our elder players, people who played the game for years, how excited they were when the show came out. And all these new players came in, because it changed the game for them as well. Really really special.”
Matty then replied to this, by, surprisingly, agreeing with Todd. Here’s what Matty said:
“Yeah, it really is an awesome community. It’s not even just like a talking piece. They’re so sweet, they’re so nice, and it feels like online nowadays, it’s becoming exceedingly rare. So it’s super appreciated what the 76 Community does.”
Indeed, this is a interesting place to reflect on how Fallout 76 has turned out. Launching in 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows, the game was savaged by critics, as well as the game’s own players. It earned a 52 / 100 MetaCritic on PC, a 53 MetaCritic on PlayStation 4, and a 49 MetaCritic on Xbox One.
No one gave this game a good review, scored or not, with many rightful criticisms leveled at its technical issues, that continued after launch, and its lack of NPCs. That endured months after the launch, though Bethesda were good on their word about fixing the game in time.
Fallout 76 also endured multiple controversies, including three separate merchandise controversies, a data breach, and an insider report alleging crunch and mismanagement. By all accounts, and likely to most gamers, Fallout 76 was a disappointment that threatened to end one of Bethesda’s key franchises.
But, way before the Fallout show released on Amazon, Bethesda’s patient efforts did eventually fix the game, to the point that Todd could reveal it had 11 million players as of 2021. The developers worked hard to do that, but they couldn’t have done it if their community didn’t stick around.
And of course, everyone knows that the community ended up coming together, on their much maligned game, and actively worked to make the game as enjoyable to new players as possible. Todd wouldn’t be able to talk about Fallout 76’s revival today, without those players.
