Bethesda Director Todd Howard recently revealed that they have an internal roadmap for Fallout 76. The game was initially a flop when it first launched back on October 23, 2018. Fans disliked how the game was online-exclusive which limited players, especially console users. To make things worse, Appalachia was seemingly dead at the time. There were little to no interactions with AIs in the game, which made the wasteland feel like a big empty open world.
Since then, Bethesda has done its best to revive the game by consistently adding new content. Slowly but surely, Fallout 76 transformed into the game the developers initially envisioned it to be. As a result, more players are now exploring Appalachia and the game is arguably in the healthiest state it has ever been in.
Fortunately, the developers aren't stopping yet as Todd Howard mentioned that his team has an internal roadmap for Fallout 76.
What Does the Fallout 76 Roadmap Entail
Bethesda Director Todd Howard recently had an interview with prominent content creator MrMattyPlays. Matty briefly talked about how Howard's team recently launched Fallout 76's first-ever map expansion Skyline Valley. The content creator then followed up with a question regarding how long the developers plan on supporting the game. Before Todd gave his response, Matty continued by sharing how he was genuinely surprised by all the previous updates and is now looking forward to more content.
Todd Howard then revealed that his team has an internal roadmap that has them consistently bringing in more content for Fallout 76 in the years to come. Howard acknowledged how their game suddenly blew up and wished to take advantage of the current circumstances. He also pointed out that the tendencies of their existing player base show that they would still play Bethesda games even after some significant time has passed. The director named Skyrim as one of the primary examples, which has been out for 13 years now.
Given these factors, while the developers haven't officially posted a roadmap for their fans to see, they're optimistic about maintaining the game for a good while.
We're gonna to keep going. Look, that game has never been more popular than it is right now. We have a great internal roadmap of things that we're doing for the next several years for that game. We think it's going to keep cotinuing.
One of the things that you see in the industry overall is that people play their games for longer. [I] saw this study at the end of last year like the top 10 played games for 2023. The average age of those games was six years old. Fallout 76 is now six years old. The only new game in that list was Starfield and the only singleplayer game. We found this too with Skyrim turning 13 years old that people do really play these games for a long time. For 76 we think it's gonna continue and continue.
In addition to these statements, Howard also shared how they're going to study how Skyline Valley does and see if it'll be worth dropping similar content in the future. Matty asked the Director if new expeditions were on the table. While Todd felt like it was a good idea, he feels that more expansive content feels more meaningful to release rather than throwing in new quests. In conclusion, Howard also hinted that the latest map expansion of Fallout 76 has a second part coming soon.