Bethesda is keen to capitalise on the popularity of Amazon’s adaptation of Fallout. To that end, Fallout 76 creative director Jon Rush has indicated that the studio might be working on seasonal content that ties directly into Amazon’s show. In an interview with Variety, Rush spoke about Fallout 76’s time setting gives the studio a lot of freedom, potentially allowing it to explore content tying in with the Amazon show.
Speaking to the publication during Summer Game Fest last month, Rush spoke about how Amazon’s adaptation of Fallout has been “effective storytelling” and “very Fallout”. This, noted Rush, also played a part in bringing in a new audience to the Fallout games. Owing to the uniqueness of the Fallout 76 setting, Rush said that the studio could potentially create in-game content that could have some overlap with Amazon’s Fallout.
“We’re always focused on the game,” said Rush. “I think a distinct trait of the Fallout 76 game is that we’re the furthest back in time. And it’s kind of funny, because the show’s the furthest into the future. So there’s a lot of room where we don’t necessarily need to overlap. There are some things that we could overlap the stories, that could exist, but we largely try to keep those pretty simple. So the show is very effective storytelling, great storytelling, very Fallout, being made by folks that are big fans of the game and the series, and so are we. The two go together really well.”
“So folks see the show and want more of that same kind of story, and they’re going to come into 76, they’re going to come into Fallout 4, or come into Fallout 3. Lining things up with the seasonal releases of the show, it’s stuff that we talk about all the time, and we do have plans for things here and there. I’m not going to go into detail on any of those now, but the two teams do talk to one another.”
Further in the interview, Rush also spoke about the relatively recent Gone Fission update, which brought fishing as a gameplay mechanic to Fallout 76. According to Rush, the summer release of the update was great timing for the studio, since many people would associate the activity of fishing in the real world to being out and about in nature during summers.
“I think the timing of it just worked out for the summer to where it felt like, oh, fishing is a very summer activity,” said Rush, who went on to talk about how players familiar with the in-game map based on Appalachia would be at an advantage thanks to knowing about where they could find fish. “Streams, ponds, rivers, creeks, and so I think once you say that, the imagination just kind of starts going, what kind of crazy things am I going to be pulling out of Wasteland waters?”
Alongside its development of additional content for Fallout 76, Bethesda is also reported to have other Fallout projects in the works, including a rumoured remake of Fallout 3 and Fallout 5.