Bethesda Says Fallout 76 Will Never Have An Offline Play Option

Back at E3, Bethesda unveiled a new Fallout game called Fallout 76 that is set in a post apocalyptic West Virginia wasteland. Unlike every previous iteration in the Fallout series, however, the upcoming title will not feature an offline component. It is multiplayer only, and if you were hoping that Bethesda would eventually release offline gameplay, don't hold your breath.

Bethesda is one of the champions of single player gaming, and even recruited the original Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) late last year to promote a tongue-in-cheek campaign to save the single player experience. Carter, as fans of The Elder Scrolls know, has voiced several characters in the franchise dating back to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and more recently in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Nevetheless, Bethesda does not have any plans of releasing an offline mode for Fallout 76, in part because of technical reasons.

it's a server based game. I don't see us completely re-engineering it to somehow be an offline game that is entirely client based.

— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) August 25, 2018

Pete Hines, senior vice president of global marketing and communications at Bethesday, explained the reasoning in a response to a question on Twitter asking if there will be an offline mode. Hines pointed to Fallout 76 being a server based game, and insinuated it would take some major re-coding to release a client based component.

The good news for gamers who don't like to play on teams is that even though Fallout 76 is an online game, solo experiences will be entirely possible.  However, Bethesda pointed out at E3 that playing solo would be more difficult. "The easiest way to survive in the wasteland is to team up and build together," Bethesda said.

Fallout 76 is set near the beginning of the post apocalyptic world in 2102, otherwise known as Reclamation Day, just 25 years since the bombs fell. A lot of the open world landscape will be intact, compared to other titles in the series. Bethesda describes it as an "untamed wasteland," noting that it will be the latest and most dynamic world in the Fallout universe.

The game is set to launch on November 14, 2018, just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. It will be available for the PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 at various price points, depending on the edition.