New report says Fallout 76 development blighted by poor management and mandatory crunch

A new report into the development of Bethesda’s widely derided Fallout 76 has painted a picture of a studio in disarray, as poor management, a lack of design direction, and engine challenges created an environment of apathy, confusion, crunch, and burnout, and a game that ultimately failed to resonate with players.

Announced in 2018 and launched the following year, Fallout 76 – an online take on Bethesda’s beloved post-apocalyptic RPG series – was less than well-received at launch. Eurogamer’s Wesley Yin-Poole even went as far as to call it a “bizarre, boring, broken mess” before slapping it with an Avoid badge.

Now, a lengthy new report from Kotaku – based on conversations with 10 former employees of Bethesda and parent company ZeniMax Media – has shed fresh light on the troubled development that lead to such a poorly received game, one seemingly doomed from the start.

It’s claimed many of the team at Bethesda’s Rockville studio, which lead development of Fallout 76, had very little enthusiasm for senior management’s push to create a live-service version of Fallout, having joined the company as fans of the studio’s single-player games.