Bethesda’s upcoming online RPG Fallout 76 has been the centre of attention in the gaming media for the past few days and for all the wrong reasons. Nevertheless, going multiplayer only is a first and huge undertaking for Bethesda, with a lot riding on it. However, not only is Fallout 76 online only, the developers are counting on the players to fill up the void caused by the lack of AI NPCs. This begs the question of the life of the game among several others.
Nothing is everlasting and that holds true for multiplayer servers. The plug has to be pulled off at some point. But Bethesda isn’t concerning themselves with this at the moment and believes that Fallout 76 will run uninterrupted for ages to come. In an interview with Gamespot, Bethesda showman Pete Hines told that Fallout 76 will run “forever”.
“I don’t know how to give an answer other than that. It’s not like anybody makes a game and goes, ‘Well this is going to make it for 10 years if we’re lucky.’ Nobody thinks that way. How long has WoW been up now? Is that game planning to sunset in a year? I seriously doubt it.”
There is a lot of merit to what Hines is saying. No one can predict the future and especially the life of a video game. We’ve seen too many games coming to an untimely death and games that just keep breathing even after their glory days. Marketing tactic or not, it is nice of Bethesda to be so optimistic.
“We’re going to keep going as long as people keep playing it and it shows no sign of slowing down,” he said. “Once we get to private servers or whatever happens in the years following; I don’t know. Maybe there’s a point where it doesn’t matter. But … this is a massive franchise and a massive undertaking, and our commitment to it is it is never-ending, and that it continues on an ongoing basis.”
We’ve been playing Fallout 76 B.E.T.A for a while now and is looking forward to the final two sessions to put out our impressions article for the online RPG.