That title faced a lot of problems after its launch and failed to meet player expectations. Howard said last year that the team knew Fallout 76 wasn’t going to review well on launch, but that it would improve over time. The perception has turned around in recent years, with the huge Wastelanders expansion coming out in April of this year and introducing a wealth of new features. In March, Bethesda’s VP of global marketing and communications Pete Hines said that the company was surprised by the negative reception its PvP mode received. “We quickly recognised that the game wasn’t really giving our audience what they wanted and they were really let down by what we delivered on day one. Without a doubt, we let a lot of people down,” Howard said. He adds: “We wanted to make something different, but the audience doesn’t always want something different. And that’s no fault of theirs, it’s totally understandable. I think maybe we did a bad job of saying how different it was going to be.” He continued: “Overall, it’s been a really positive experience for us,” he says of Fallout 76. “It’s made us much better developers, much more connected with our community. So I can’t say it’s going to be a one-off.”
