Todd Howard On Fallout 76 Crossplay And Cross-Progression

Fallout 76, Bethesda’s MMORPG set in the Fallout universe, is probably more popular today than ever thanks to Amazon’s new TV series. So it makes sense that in a recent interview, Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard was asked about Fallout 76 and crossplay. And while the ability for PC and console players to mingle sounds off the table, Howard at least seemed more positive about cross-progression.

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Since the launch of the Fallout TV show earlier this month, all of the Fallout games have exploded in popularity. This includes the black sheep of the family, Fallout 76. The online-only spin-off is seeing more players than ever across all platforms. And as thousands of new players rush into the open-world post-apocalyptic MMORPG, they might expect—like most games in 2024—that Fallout 76 would support crossplay or, at least, cross-progression. However, if you play on Xbox you can’t play with PC players or PlayStation gamers, and all your progress is tied to that platform, too. And while crossplay seems unlikely, Todd Howard seems more open to a future where cross-progression is a thing in Fallout 76.

On the April 29 episode of Kinda Funny’s Gamecast, Howard talked about the Fallout franchise and the future of crossplay in Fallout 76.

“We keep looking into it, but [Fallout 76] wasn’t designed that way from the beginning. So obviously we get into server and database silos,” said Howard.

When asked about crossplay or cross-progression, he offered Bethesda’s opinions on the features that have become standard in 2024.

“Here’s what I would say, which is for us the the more the important thing is cross-progression than cross-play—and we do separate them—we’d love to have it all, sure. It’s something we are looking at but I will say it’s quite—the way that [Fallout 76] architected from the beginning—a technical lift. Not saying we are or aren’t doing anything, we are looking at it and seeing where that’s going to impact people.”

He continued: “I think going forward in the world we want to be in, I think it’s it’s very important and something that you know in our future games that we’re going to be really, really mindful about to make sure—in particular the progression—that where you pick up a game you’re able no matter what screen you’re on you’re able to just keep going with your character and what you were doing.”

Funnily enough, Howard did suggest that if employees are annoyed by something in their games—like no crossplay—it becomes a higher priority for them and they fix it.

“When we can’t pick it up and [make progression,] it does move it up the stack internally.”

So we just need some folks at Bethesda to get annoyed about Fallout 76’s lack of cross-saves, I guess!

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