Bethesda News

Following approval from a number of regulators in both Europe and the United States, it’s official: Microsoft’s $7.5 million deal to buy ZeniMax is over and done with. Naturally, Microsoft had some things to say about the acquisition and what it means for the future of Bethesda, the well-known name behind immensely famous series like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. The most important bit of information for gamers is the confirmation that Bethesda will indeed be making games that are exclusive to Xbox and PC in the future. Before PlayStation fans freak out, don’t worry: only some games from the studio will be exclusive, not all of them.

Fallout 76 has given Bethesda a whole lot of trouble since its launch; with an appalling lack of content that even including the absence of NPCs, it’s no wonder that players and even Fallout fans were quite unhappy with the whole situation. Naturally Bethesda has taken some steps to try and rectify the situation since the launch of Fallout 76, but the stigma from its opening days still hasn’t gone away. And even though Bethesda may have been able to finally fix some of the major problems with the game with the Wastelanders update (which was going to add NPCs), not only did that update get delayed, but their most recent decision in regards to the game is just making things worse.

Anyone who remembers the initial launch of Fallout 76 remembers that it was pretty bad; or rather, a downright catastrophe in most regards. There were a couple of things that made the initial launch so distinctly poor, but if there’s one thing almost every player could agree on as being an utterly terrible design decision, it was the lack of human NPCs in an RPG game. Imagine a Fallout game where there is no one to talk to at all aside from robots and computer recordings. It was and is as bad as it sounds, being one of the most vocal complaints from players everywhere, so it makes sense that Bethesda would try to fix it.