Fallout 76 is an upcoming online multiplayer action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the ninth game in the Fallout series and serves as a narrative prequel to the series. It is scheduled to be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 14, 2018.
Fallout 76 is a narrative prequel to previous Fallout games. It is set in an alternate version of history and takes place in 2102, twenty-five years after a nuclear war that devastated the Earth. The player character is a resident of Vault 76, a fallout shelter that was built in West Virginia to house America's best and brightest minds. The player character exits the Vault on "Reclamation Day" as part of a plan to re-colonise the Wasteland.[17]
The game was announced on May 30, 2018; the announcement was preceded by a twenty-four hour live stream on Twitch showing a Vault Boy bobblehead toy in front of a monitor with a "Please Stand By" test pattern screen, a signature image of the series. This stream was watched by a total of over two million people, with more than one hundred thousand people watching at any time.[19]
Details of the game were announced by Howard during Bethesda's press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo on June 10, 2018, including its anticipated release date of November 14, 2018. As it is Bethesda Game Studio’s first experience with a fully online game, Howard confirmed that there will be an open beta phase before launch to help debug these features.[5]