Fallout 76’s former project lead says it’s still his favourite game he worked on, but the initial reception was demoralising: ‘I got yelled at in an Apple Store, I’ll never forget’

Fallout 76 has become another feather in Bethesda’s cap, assisted by the fact that it’s the game best-positioned to take advantage of the popularity of Amazon’s fantastic Fallout TV show, and thanks to the cavalcade of transformative free updates. But it wasn’t always like this. At launch, the reception was rough. An online-only Fallout game with zero NPCs? Yeah, that was never going to fly.

“Working on a live service game comes with a lot of stress, because it just doesn’t go away,” says Jeff Gardiner, who spent 15 years producing The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, and served as Fallout 76’s project lead until he left in 2021. It wasn’t like he could just move on after players expressed their disappointment. And that even followed him when he was out shopping. “I got yelled at in an Apple Store, I’ll never forget.”