Six years after its launch, Fallout 76 is preparing to reach a new milestone. During Fallout Day, the annual event dedicated to the franchise, Bethesda Game Studios announced the arrival of a native version of the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. A long-awaited update by the community, which will finally allow the post-apocalyptic MMO to take full advantage of the power of current consoles.
It is Bill LaCostesenior producer at Bethesda, who made the information official: “At the beginning of next year, a native version of Fallout 76 will arrive on Xbox Series S and X and PlayStation 5. This update will take full advantage of their hardware capabilities.” Although no technical details have yet been revealed, we can already anticipate several well-known improvements to this type of porting.
Performance finally up to par on consoles
Since its launch in 2018, Fallout 76 has never benefited from a real adaptation to the PS5 or Xbox Series. Players of new generation consoles had to settle for a backwards compatible version, with limited performance. This should change soon.
With this native version scheduled for early 2026, expectations are clear: 4K resolution, stable 60 FPS, sharper textures, improved lighting and significantly reduced loading times. These optimizations have become standard across next-gen updates, and Fallout 76 badly needs them to modernize its gaming experience.
This transition is all the more strategic as Fallout 76 remains today the only multiplayer part of the franchise, still active thanks to regular updates. Its late popularity made it a major revenue source for Bethesda, despite a rocky start.
Fallout 76, Fallout 4, Switch 2: Bethesda relaunches its franchise
This announcement does not come alone. At the same time, Bethesda also confirmed the release of an anniversary edition of Fallout 4, scheduled for November 10, as well as a port to the future Nintendo Switch 2 consolescheduled for 2026. The strategy is clear: relaunch the entire franchise with cross-platform updates and optimized versions.
Cross-play has not yet been confirmed for Fallout 76, and the chances of seeing this feature arrive remain low according to Bethesda’s statements. But this upgrade remains an important step towards harmonizing the gaming experience across all media.
With this native version, Fallout 76 is preparing to begin a second life, better adapted to current standards. It remains to be seen whether Bethesda will be able to keep players engaged until a highly anticipated future single-player sequel.