Fallout 76 is something of a dark horse in the Bethesda Game Studios library, but it's come a long way since its unequivocally disastrous launch, which was plagued with game-breaking bugs and technical shortcomings alongside criticisms of its world design and lack of stuff to do and look at. Bethesda has spent seven years polishing the game and adding content, and these days it's in pretty good standing, and in fact, it's the Bethesda game Todd Howard is most proud of.
Appearing on a recent episode of the Kinda Funny show (via Idle Sloth), Howard made the case for Fallout 76 over generational and beloved releases like Skyrim, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 and 4.
"It was incredibly difficult," Howard said. "It was difficult to get it to launch, and it didn't launch great, and then it was even harder to pull it out of that, and then when it starts getting really popular again, maintain it."
Howard then shouted out "incredible" Fallout 76 community for sticking with the game for so many years despite its rough state at launch. He also suggested the game's redemption arc and staying power are the reasons he's so proud of it today, which is fair. Not many online games are able to recover from a launch as universally maligned as Fallout 76's, and although that's never been as true as it these days, it's still genuinely impressive that the game is still around and generally liked these days.
"In many respects, it's the game that we've done that I’m the most proud of," added Howard. "It's so hard to do and then maintain as a relevant game, and I think if you look across the industry, the amount of games like it that there have been or come and gone, and here's 76 still there with big numbers and doing well."
Fallout 76 is going on its eighth year, and it doesn't sound like it's slowing down any time soon. "I get to see the roadmap that's planned for the game, and it gets even better," said Howard.
