There have been several technological breakthroughs in the gaming world, cross-play being one of them. This feature has become a staple for most modern games and essentially allows players from one platform to play alongside players who have the game on another platform. As exciting as something like cross-play is, it is something a game has to make work with older games which were designed without cross-play in mind.
This is unfortunately the case with Fallout 76, Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic online title which has seen a surge in players after the massive success of the Fallout TV series. Initially, the game was heavily criticized by players for both its lack of content and overall lack of polish. However, things have changed as the game is now sitting at a mostly positive rating on Steam. Unfortunately, Fallout 76 is once again in the spotlight after players noted that the title is missing quite a few features such as cross-play and cross-progression from platform to platform.
In a recent interview with IGN, Todd Howard revealed that the studio would be putting their focus on cross-progression rather than cross-play, saying “for us the more the important thing is cross-progression than cross-play — and we do separate them — we’d love to have it all”. He continued “it’s something we are looking at, but I will say it’s quite — the way that [Fallout 76] was 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.”
While it is unfortunate that both of these features are unlikely to come to Fallout 76 anytime soon, it is still good to hear that Bethesda is at least looking into adding these features to the game. It should be noted in this same interview, Todd Howard also shared some insight into what future projects Bethesda is working on including the upcoming Shattered Space expansion for Starfield and two yet to be announced projects for the Fallout franchise.
