There was a healthy amount of skepticism surrounding Fallout 76 in the build up to its launch, but the reception it has received from critics and fans alike has been far beyond anyone could have guessed. On, OpenCritic it currently holds a rating of 55, which I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you is exceptionally low, especially for a game made by Bethesda.
Not surprisingly, that negativity surrounding the game seems to have affected its sales as well. Though it generated decent revenue in UK during its launch week, it’s physical sales were over 80 per cent down from those of Fallout 4. In fact, prices of the game have already dropped significantly on various outlets.
At Amazon, BestBuy, and the Microsoft Store, Fallout 76 has seen a 35 per cent price drop and is now being sold for $40 (it launched at a standard retail price of $60). It should be noted that that is probably partly due to the Black Friday weekend, but considering the fact that the game is barely over a week old yet, one has to wonder whether the prices were also dropped to drive sales.
Our own review of Fallout 76 wasn’t very positive either, and crippling technical issues and some serious design flaws were just a few of the many problems we noted. I don’t find it completely surprising, then, that the game isn’t performing as well as it should have been. Hopefully, Bethesda will turn things around and manage to fix the game over time.