As you might expect, the Fallout TV series on Prime Video has sent a lot of new and returning players to Fallout 76. But not even Bethesda could have predicted the warm welcome that these newcomers received from the preexisting players in the game.
While speaking with The Game Business, Fallout 76 creative director John Rush expressed his shock at the cooperative spirit and sense of camaraderie that’s emerged in the game.
“I’d say a lot of the onboarding was done by our wonderful community who was recognizing all of these fresh vault dwellers emerging from Vault 76 and setting up camps outside of that and giving them free stuff and showing them things and ‘look at what I built,'” said Rush. “So it was very much a concerted effort between us and our community welcoming this new influx of brand-new players and returning players alike.”
According to Rush, this was was contrary to the reaction Bethesda was expecting.
“Before we released the game, we were like, ‘Oh, it’s post-apocalyptic, it’s Fallout. Let’s let them know. They’re gonna wanna kill one another,'” recalled Rush. “It’s the complete opposite … It’s been great to see that. I’ve never experienced a community as great as the Bethesda Game Studios community.”
As part of Bethesda’s drive to create a crossover audience with the show, Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul was added to Fallout 76 in December’s Burning Springs update. That update also added a new region, additional wildlife, and bounty missions. Bethesda released a new patch for Fallout 76 in January to address some of the bugs that came out of that update.
Fallout has been renewed for Season 3 by Prime Video, but there’s currently no release window for the show’s next season.