Fallout 76 received a lot of criticism on release for its departure from the Fallout tradition of having characters and factions, but the massive Wastelanders update is meant to change all that. The update will add NPCs – including romanceable companions – as well as raider and settler factions and an entire new main quest. It was set to come out in November, but has now been delayed until early 2020.
Bethesda published an announcement this week stating that, while the development of Wastelanders is progressing nicely, the release is being pushed toward the first quarter of 2020 in order to make sure that the update is polished and to make sure it meets Bethesda’s “quality bar,” as well as players’ expectations. They apologize for the delay, but say that Wastelanders will be worth the wait.
This is not unusual; delays in game production happen all the time. It comes as a surprise, though, since all indications before this announcement pointed toward a November release on schedule. Fallout 76 is even currently hosting an in-game event called “Project Clean Appalachia,” which is meant to be a sort of cleaning house before the guests – the NPCs that will be added in the Wastelanders DLC – arrive in the West Virginia Wasteland. The event is ending on October 23rd, and as of October 18th, Bethesda’s web page for the event still mentions a November release.
On a brighter note, Bethesda also announced that private servers, a long-awaited addition to the game, will go live next week. Bethesda will handle all private server hosting, but also mentioned players “purchas[ing] this service” suggesting that private servers are not free to anyone who plays Fallout 76.
In all, this delay is a good thing. Bethesda has a history of publishing first and adding massive game patches later, so a delay to make sure the update is polished is preferable, especially for a huge game-changing update like Wastelanders. Plus, with how common workplace crunch is in the game industry, it’s good that the developers are getting a few extra months to finish rather than being overworked to keep with the expected release. Hopefully, Wastelanders will be worth the wait.
Source: PC Gamer