In case you were on a floating asteroid in space this past year: Fallout 76 came out, and boy was it a complete mess. Not only did it get a 49-53 on Metacritic (depending on platform) and have underwhelming sales, but it was, and is, seemingly in the headlines each week with a new controversy. It would have been one thing to ship the game in the state it's in. That would have been bad enough. But the terrible narrative of Fallout 76 was only escalated by controversy after controversy. Suffice to say, it has likely iced Fallout for a little bit, and in the process has temporarily hurt the Bethesda brand.
But this is the Internet. People forget and move on all the time, especially if you right the wrong. And according to Pachter, the stink of Fallout 76 won't linger hard or potent enough to negatively impact Bethesda's Starfield or The Elder Scrolls VI.
“I don’t think there’s any risk to any future single player games,” Pachter said while speaking to GamingBolt. “It just tells you that they weren’t ready to make a multiplayer-only game. They probably have to go back and figure out what they did wrong, and how to get it right. I have to say, it’s the first game in the Fallout series I haven’t played, and I don’t have any interest in playing it. I mean, it was so poorly reviewed that I’m just not gonna try it, and I’ve played all their games for hundreds of hours.
“I expect that people will look at it as a blip, but you never know."
Personally, I disagree with Mr. Pachter, partially that is. The Fallout 76 fiasco was near Star Wars Battlefront II levels of mess. And people haven't forgotten about that, as it has seemingly negatively impacted Battlefield V's sales, among other things. However, there is a difference between the two cases. EA has a history of being despised and a punchline among some gamers, Bethesda doesn't. So the question is: was Fallout 76 enough to sink years of good will Bethesda has earned? Probably not, but to say it won't impact it's games going forward, I think is probably incorrect.
That said, luckily both Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI are years off, meaning, Bethesda will have plenty of time to leave Fallout 76 behind it.
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Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/01/06/the-elder-scrolls-vi-starfield-fallout-76/
"'The Elder Scrolls 6' Won't Be Hurt By 'Fallout 76' Fiasco" :: Login/Create an Account :: 3 comments