Bethesda
The release of Fallout 76 is shaping up to be one of the biggest releases of 2018.
Fallout 76 is the first fully online multiplayer Fallout title in the series which means you’ll be able to bring a group of friends with you into the wasteland. This is a big selling point for the game but it really only applies if all of your friends are on the same platform.
Fallout 76 does not support cross-platform play meaning if you are on Xbox One you won’t be able to play with players on PS4 or PC. Xbox players will be playing with Xbox players, PC with PC and PS4 with PS4 which isn’t too much of a surprise.
Bethesda’s Pete Hines hasn’t closed the door entirely on cross-play but has said it isn’t something the team is looking at right now.
“Folks, chill,” said Hines in a tweet responding to Sony announcing it is opening up cross-play with Fortnite. “I work with a lot of devs and games for whom this is important going forward. Fallout 76 does not support cross-play, for a number of reasons. I have no idea if it ever will. But I assure you it is not on our radar right now as we focus on B.E.T.A. and Launch.”
As for right now, there is no cross-play and we don’t expect it to be a thing for quite some time, if ever. Several games have been adopting cross-play recently such as Minecraft, Fortnite and Rocket League but those games are still the exception rather than the norm.
More developers seem to be open to the idea of cross-play so maybe it’s possible with the next generation of consoles we’ll see this as more of a normal thing. Only time will tell.
Fallout 76 releases November 14 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The PC release won’t be on Steam but instead will be through Bethesda’s new online store.