Todd Howard’s Biggest Fallout 76 Regret Is Not Launching a Free Beta

During Bethesda’s E3 2019 conference, Fallout 76 received somewhat of a jump start. It needed it, too, given the problematic launch in late 2018. Many fans continue to debate whether things could’ve gone differently out of the gate and how. There seems to exist no set answer. However, Bethesda Games Studios’ Todd Howard has put forth one suggestion in sharing his biggest regret about Fallout 76 overall. What the latest Fallout entry should’ve had is a free beta, according to Howard.

In a GameSpot interview for E3, Howard was asked if he harbored any regrets about “communicating the idea of Fallout 76.” Howard answered, “my main regret is not doing a beta that a lot of people could play. Like if we had made it free for every Fallout 4 player and run a 24/7 beta, for a longer period of time, that would have let us see, ‘okay, what are we really dealing with here?'”

Of course, Bethesda did host betas ahead of Fallout 76’s November release. Yet, they were limited, primarily allowing fans who preordered the title to experience the game first. During the GameSpot interview, Howard addressed this, as well. He continued,

The betas we did were concentrated because we were worried about peak concurrencies. So we got those issues solved, but didn’t get a good look at, how does the game really behave at scale 24/7. So that, you know… learned that lesson the hard way, but wish we had done that.

The full interview is featured in the video below. Talk of Howard’s beta regrets begins around the 8:40 mark:

The next few months are going to be pretty big in the world of Fallout 76. Currently, Bethesda is hosting a free trial that ends on June 17th, allowing newcomers plenty of time to explore the newly added battle royale mode, Nuclear Winter. NPCs will also appear in the game, thanks to a free update, Wastelanders, that’s scheduled to launch this fall.

[Source: GameSpot via PC Gamer]