There's no doubt that Fallout 76 received a major boost in its player base following the smashing success of Fallout's TV debut on Amazon Prime Video. While previous installments in the franchise also registered significant upticks in player activity, Fallout 76 is the only game still running and being updated, and it also received a few nifty cross-over items like the Ghoul's outfit, inspired by fan-favorite TV show character Cooper Howard (played by Walton Goggins). Now, on the heels of the Ghoul craze, the studio is about to add playable Ghouls for the first time in the franchise.
With all this excitement, no wonder, then, that it quickly reached the 20 million player milestone and broke 21 million only a few months later. With the show's second season now in full production, the question is, can fans expect a bigger cross-over event?
Speaking to VG247, Fallout 76 Lead Producer Bill LaCoste replied that that's probably not going to be the case, as the team doesn't want to go all-in on fan service with the risk of overdoing it.
I would imagine it would probably be along the same lines because we have an appreciation for the TV show, the story it’s trying to tell, and the characters it's trying to portray, and we also have an appreciation for the story Fallout 76 is trying to tell.
So, very, very limited amounts of crossover, where it actually makes sense because, again, we're on extreme ends of the Fallout timeline as well. So, some of that crossover doesn't make sense. We just want to make sure that it's done in a way that is supportive of the TV show, but also allows us to just coexist within this story overall that's being told.
We probably won't go out of our way to add a whole bunch of stuff specific to the show because we don't feel like we need to. We feel like it's great to let the TV show do its thing and for people to love the TV show for what it is, but also love our game for what it is, and not just give fan service for just the sake of doing it. We'll do some things that make sense, the Vault 33 suit made sense, it's something that exists in the world and you can have it, but yeah, we'll probably keep that relatively light would be my guess.
On paper, it sounds like the right choice. While fan service is generally appreciated by gamers, it can easily backfire. For now, though, the Fallout 76 community is very excited about the future following the Gleaming Depths update and the upcoming debut of playable Ghouls.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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