Fallout 76

[EyeDeck]

There's this weird assumption that Bethesda is clueless regarding how big a place the modding community has in extending the life and sales of their games.

Only 14% of total sales for Skyrim were for PC, everything else invariably being some console or other that does not support modding. Although I'm sure mods help sales, from past experience Bethesda can pretty safely draw the conclusion that they are not critical, and were probably banking on new revenue from the Creation Club offsetting sales lost because of a lack of mod support.

 

[woodfuzzy]

Only 14% of total sales for Skyrim were for PC, everything else invariably being some console or other that does not support modding. Although I'm sure mods help sales, from past experience Bethesda can pretty safely draw the conclusion that they are not critical, and were probably banking on new revenue from the Creation Club offsetting sales lost because of a lack of mod support.

Todd admitted that mods are the key to the games longevity. And mods will be allowed on the privet servers. Just not on launch day. Now if it be mods from the community.. or just CC... that remains to be seen.

 

[vassnti]

Online shooter / builder no npcs pvp OMG fallout 76 is post nuclear fortnite

 

[Strec]

Long life to Fallout 4 modding :D

 

[MrCJohn]

I heard a quote from a commentator - 12 versus 12 Deathmatch. And I think that is what most of us, especially in the lore / franchise side, fears most. Whether online is a precursor or a test run in preparation for Fallout 5 (if ever as we know it or would want it), or Skyrim 6. And that would be the long lasting deathknell for us, as well as for the ESO people.

Perhaps people would have not such a negative reaction to Fallout 76 if they just simply said it is a Fallout SPINOFF online gaming platform.... it's all this "trying to be something to everyone" is what will sour the lore fan base.

Now, if Fallout 5, is the true lore, survival game we hope it is, and oh, btw, there is an online multiplayer package with the game - costs more - but who cares?

Instead of tomfoolery of PvP, private servers, mods you can buy for it (I don't believe other mods will be available atm), maybe you can play single player, etc... just shove Fallout 4 mechanics in the Fallout 76 maps & Quests...

Repackage Fallout 76 as a single player Fallout game (as a spinoff flavor of New Vegas) with an online multiplayer/coop death match option so they can do their beta testing etc. would seem to be the best option. Use the attached beta to prove out all the things they want to do.

Taking a major step like this on Fallout 76 as it currently appears, at launch, is a huge risk - mechanics, implementation, franchise risks, etc... .

John

 

[EyeDeck]

Todd admitted that mods are the key to the games longevity.

Longevity doesn't translate into revenue however, not directly anyway. This is obviously why Bethesda came up with the CC "totally not paid mods" idea, since before that Bethesda get absolutely nothing from the user after the initial game/DLC sales. Things like increased popularity and word-of-mouth advertising aren't easily quantifiable, so it's entirely believable to me that someone at Bethesda ran the math and thought "do we really need free mods?", and decided that the game being online-only would be a good enough justification for getting rid of them.

It's pretty clear that initially there were no plans for private servers or mods, and expected "omg online Fallout!" to outweigh the other concerns. They were so wrong that not only did they backpedal on both of those, but they also officially announced their next two big single-player RPG titles probably years before they had really intended to just to soften the blow of Bethesda's next big title not being an RPG.

I actually feel a bit bad for them since I'm sure BGS thought it would be a massively popular idea and poured tons of effort and creativity into it, only to get easily the most negative reaction to anything they've ever done.

 

[MrCJohn]

Eyedeck

- would seem to be that Creation Club was not the answer to cashing in on the longevity part of the games.... considering how many years between versions? And there is a thriving modding community? Bad business plan IMHO.

I would think that something other than paid mods would be more successful...

personally, if they didn't do the paid mods, but sold a "remastered" or an "upgrade patch" copy of FO4 with a better engine to allow the 255 limit to run efficiently, better script management, eliminate lagging, performance improvements, etc...

Or unlocking more areas of map with new quests... yes, more DLC's would be good... if we are talking micro transactions - not just skins and weapon mods in CC.

Just something to make the years go by and capitalize on that longevity ---- that would be something I would pay for...

People will pay for what is of value and of importance. Beth screwed up on this... my humble opinion again.

John

 

[Jonnan]

Only 14% of total sales for Skyrim were for PC, everything else invariably being some console or other that does not support modding. Although I'm sure mods help sales, from past experience Bethesda can pretty safely draw the conclusion that they are not critical, and were probably banking on new revenue from the Creation Club offsetting sales lost because of a lack of mod support.

And the response was to work up a system to get mods to consoles, free mods if viable but paid/qa'd mod if perchance a console was run by anal-retentive corporate executives.

Seriously - they went to the trouble to get free mods to the XBox community, then did a *separate* system to jump through hoops getting qa'd and paid mods (And yeah, it's paid mods) to the Playstation community.

They absolutely knew before either of these the hoops Sony was going to make them jump through, but rather than just making a single use solution for both platforms, they created two separate systems for modding, and ran them in parallel, despite knowing there is a thriving mod community on Nexus.

I'm not immune to the risks of 'trusting' a corporation; Some of us remember Microsoft 'adopting' a version of java and making it not quite compatible as a strategy to kill a potential market breaker. But nothing BSG has done indicates this intent; everything indicates they are fully aware that a thriving mod ecology benefits them.

And given that they went to extra and completely unnecessary effort to actively introduce the X-box community to that thriving ecology, their action seem, to me, to belie any attempt to assert control over the community.

I could be wrong. Heck, it could be they fully intend to and didn't communicate that to the devs and went 'Gee, I wish they hadn't done that' the day after that. But the simplest explanation is they see more revenue in getting mods to their complete fanbase, PC and Console, than in trying to monetize it as a revenue stream they would have to exert control over and manage.

 

[xnef1025]

Beth knows the value of mods. The longevity of Skyrim that's allowed them to sell and resell new versions on every platform known to man comes from the vibrant modding community that came with the original release back in 2011.

Without modding, Skyrim doesn't retain its popularity. It is remembered as a good RPG, buggy though, so maybe a tad too ambitious. It's Elder Scrolls so of course there's a pedigree, but that really only matters to superfans. We never see a remaster on the next gen consoles because it just doesn't seem like a good move financially without the modding community singing it's praises and keeping it in the public consciousness for so long. Definitely no Switch port.

 

[Jo3Dang3r]

Millions die and humanity is forced to live in underground vaults for years because of nuclear war.
Vault dwellers exit their vaults and proceed to nuke each other as quickly as possible.
The entire premise is kind of silly. I loved FO3. NV, and FO4. I even bought the Power Armor version of 76, but I'm having a hard time at this point being excited to play. Hopefully that changes.

 

[RayBo]

Steam, Gurrrrr???????

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[ielle]

Steam, Gurrrrr???????

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That's a shame if it ends up being true. He made some very valid points about Steam.

Like the above video mentioned, noclip's doc about the making of 76 is worth a watch - it answers a few questions about the why's and how's of 76 and maybe pose some new ones. Why more trees, why these monsters, etc.

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