How Bethesda Fumbled Fallout 4’s Sudden Popularity With The Next-Gen Update

Raised from the dead following the massive success of Amazon Prime’s Fallout TV series, Fallout 4 was awarded a next-gen update from Bethesda, which, unfortunately, made things worse for the fans as it created many more issues than it aimed to resolve. Fallout 4 is still pretty popular following the TV series’ success, but it could’ve been a lot better than it is right now.

The Fallout TV series was unexpectedly good, with an 8.6/10 rating on IMDb. Right after the TV show dropped, all Fallout games received a considerable boost in their player count, with Fallout 4 gaining the most players out of all other games from the franchise, consistently earning a spot in Steam’s most-played games.

Bethesda, staying true to its reputation, had to try and mess it all up with its next-gen update, which was released recently on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X. Unfortunately, the update brought many new bugs and glitches, ruining the experience of many new and returning players.

The #Fallout 4 next-gen update brings with it a new Quality and Performance mode, widescreen support, and 3 free Creation Club content packs for all players!

Check out the full details here: https://t.co/HYW9r8PfIJ pic.twitter.com/EMN2mluunH

— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) April 25, 2024

How Exactly Did The Update Mess Things Up?

The update promised many changes, but it also ruined a lot of things, which we’ll be discussing shortly. First and foremost, the update broke multiple popular mods that had been around for years. Mods are heavily dependent on the game version, which gets updated with each patch from the devs, even minor changes can have a significant effect, and as such, many mods were unable to run at all.

The update also ruined the plans for several mods that were work-in-progress, as the modders will now have to spend a lot of time and effort to get the mods to work on the new version of the game. And this isn’t a PC-only issue, as several mods on consoles were also affected.

So that new Fallout 4 update…..

Broke all the mods, and added Ultrawide support, huh?

It's all stretched… pic.twitter.com/HMgWmE1tJ4

— Tyler McVicker (@Tyler_McV) April 25, 2024

Besides mods, the update brought ultrawide monitor support, which did its job. However, it also stretched the UI, and now everything looks super ugly with no way to adjust it. Additionally, the game is locked at 60 FPS on PC and is unable to go higher. On Xbox Series consoles, the performance mode is broken, and switching it up does nothing.

Fallout 4 fans on next gen – I can confirm that only the 60fps 'performance mode' works right now. The update has a bug.

Disabling the performance mode seemingly does nothing. It stays at 60fps and the res bound stays the same.

— Thomas Morgan (@cataferal) April 25, 2024

PlayStation Plus users couldn’t exactly get the free update for ‘free’. And Steam Deck users also experienced several issues following the update. All in all, the update brought pure chaos and ruined more things than it fixed on all platforms, and with the number of people playing the game right now, it’s a shame how it could’ve been so much better without the next-gen update.

Takeaway

Bethesda is known for suddenly dropping updates out of nowhere on games that have been doing fine for years. It also happened last year with Skyrim, where the developers dropped an update that ruined a decade’s worth of mods, and the same thing has happened now with Fallout 4, and at a fairly crucial time as well, where the game is more popular than ever.

One would assume Bethesda might’ve learned its lesson, but it’s still not very surprising, considering it’s Bethesda we’re talking about. A few months ahead, when the modding community has adjusted to the new update, we might see another update coming that will break everything again. It will likely not happen, but it is still a possibility with Bethesda.