Ever since Fallout 76, an online-focused shared-world title, was announced by Bethesda at E3, people have, to put it mildly, been losing their minds. Bethesda Game Studios, one of the biggest cheerleaders of single player only titles, is making an online game? How dare they! The developers have said in the past that the game is simply an interesting idea they had that they’ve wanted to make for some time, and that it doesn’t spell what the future will be like for them, but they’re having to defend themselves yet again.
Recently, a fan ended up “asking” Bethesda’s Pete Hines about the studio’s activities going forward, making this displeasure with the online nature of Fallout 76 all too clear, with Hines only having to re-iterate what Bethesda has been saying ever since E3– that games like Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 are still coming, and if that doesn’t tell you that Bethesda aren’t just going to be making online-only games going forward, nothing will.
Hines also mentioned that Fallout 76 represents an idea that the studio had that they’ve been wanting to turn into a game for some time, and that they’ve “earned the right to try to make something they want to make”. And I for one absolutely agree with that. I personally may not be much of an online guy myself, but the fact that that the studio isn’t turning its back on the single player market is abundantly clear by now, and if Fallout 76 – which also looks excellent, mind you – is an experiment that they want to try out, they should be free to do so.
This isn’t the first (or even the tenth) time Bethesda have had to address this. Other than the things I’ve already mentioned up above, quite recently, Bethesda also confirmed that Fallout 5 would be a single player game (whenever it comes out, that is), while even Fallout 76 itself is a game that you can enjoy solo- as Todd Howard himself does as well.
Todd gave his explanation of this during his E3 presentation. I can't really explain it better than he did. We talked about quite a few new single-player things during our E3 Showcase.
— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) July 25, 2018
I'm not sure what you mean. He explained how the studio had an idea for something they really wanted to try, etc. Dunno how that contradicts anything. It's a game they wanted to make. They've earned the right to try to make something they want to make.
— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) July 25, 2018
Except they also just announced their next project: Starfield, a new IP, single-player game. So….
— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) July 27, 2018
We already told you what their next project is and that it’s SP. What any other studio has done is irrelevant. We have given you a look at their dev plan and roadmap.
— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) July 27, 2018
