Bethesda Studio announced on May 30th that Fallout 76 has surpassed a huge milestone. The game crossed the 20 million players mark which is huge, and an achievement not even the popular game The Last of Us was able to achieve.
In today’s gaming industry, where competition is very fierce and players have a plethora of games to try out, this achievement is remarkable. But what made it even more impressive was not just the number, but the context of how they got to this stage.
Fallout’s Meteoric Rise: A Testament to Cross-Media Synergy
The major contributor to the sudden popularity of Fallout 76 was the Prime Video Fallout show. The show was released on April 10th and was streamed on the Amazon Prime Video platform. Amazon bought the rights to the series back in 2020 and has been working on it ever since.
Since the release of the show, players’ attention and affection have been going toward Fallout’s intriguing story and its harsh, unforgiving environment. The series reminded all players about the Fallout game and all its beloved elements. In an interview, Director and Executive Producer Todd Howard discussed how the show benefited them. He said:
Depending on the Fallout game, you’re looking at a 4-6x increase in daily players, which is beyond anything I’ve ever seen in my 30 years of doing this. Having an event that brings that many people into games that you have and who have never played your games before, that’s a big thing.
Todd Howard even teased that they might be working on various new projects like this. His exact words were:
Games take a good five-ish years. So we’re in plans for future games in this series and nothing to talk about right now, but we’re always planning.
Howard was surprised by the level of success the show brought to the game and how an unexpected turn of events could turn everything around. This shows that the gaming industry is evolving and the power of cross-media synergy can benefit both players and studios.
The Power of Accessibility: Game Pass vs. Sony’s Restrictive Model
Another factor contributing to Fallout 76‘s huge milestone of 20 million player count was the game’s availability of Xbox Game Pass. The convenience and availability offered by Game Pass are very vast. It played a pivotal role in attracting both new and old players, who returned to the Fallout universe.
Phil Spencer May Be Looking to Retaliate Against Xbox and PC Players That Attacked Him in Fallout 76
But Sony’s approach to game distribution is very different as they restrict their game exclusively to their platforms. This method has been criticized by many fans and studios alike. As Howard bluntly put, “Sony gate-keeps their games so hard that they missed out on a golden opportunity to capitalize on increasing their player count.”
The Last of Us is a great game but with Sony’s PlayStation as a publisher, the game’s availability to the audience is very limited. It takes years to get a PC port, and even then gamers saw a PSN account requirement attached to it. With Fallout’s success, Sony is taking another loss due to its restrictions.
The gaming industry is all about innovation and embracing changes and possibilities. With Fallout‘s big achievement, it proves that adaptation and expandability are the keys to success. It has become clear that the future of gaming holds potential only for those who are willing to seize it.
