Fallout 76 cross-play support is not in Bethesda's "immediate plans," but the developer is no longer opposed to the idea altogether. On the contrary, it is now actively assessing the work required to make this much-requested Fallout 76 feature a reality, a senior company official has revealed.
Bethesda's Appalachia-set live-service RPG has been limited to 24 players per server since its 2018 beginnings. Likewise, it has kept players separated by platform from day one, running separate servers for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC gamers. Despite some vocal parts of the Fallout 76 community spending years calling for cross-play support, Bethesda has consistently ignored those pleas, occasionally citing technical hurdles as the primary obstacle to implementing truly multi-platform servers. More than seven years following the game’s release, the developer now appears to be signaling a change in direction.
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Bethesda Finally 'Looking Into' Fallout 76 Cross-Play
In an early February 2026 interview with Polygon, Fallout 76 Creative Director Jon Rush revealed that Bethesda has at last decided to look into the possibility of bringing cross-platform multiplayer to its long-running game. "We are looking into it, and we have plans to try to scope out what that work is going to entail for us," the executive said. However, these efforts are still in their infancy, with Rush being quick to note that players shouldn't expect any major developments in the near term. "It's just not in the immediate plans for us," he explained, without committing to a more concrete timeline.
Fallout 76 Lead Producer Bill LaCoste told Polygon that the very notion of cross-play support is a huge retrofit because multi-platform servers are typically something solved before launch, not seven-plus years after the fact. Revisiting the idea now would involve addressing entitlements, account purchases, and currency handling across different ecosystems. The comments are consistent with years' worth of Bethesda remarks warning that Fallout 76 cross-play support is a technically formidable challenge. Nevertheless, the very fact it is now actively assessing the feature marks a shift from earlier positions, which were much more dismissive of the idea. LaCoste downplayed the possibility of cross-platform servers as late as October 2025. What exactly changed in the meantime to prompt Bethesda to reconsider its stance is unclear.
We are looking into [Fallout 76 cross-play support], and we have plans to try to scope out what that work is going to entail for us. It's just not in the immediate plans for us.
Unified matchmaking could shorten Fallout 76 queue times in off-peak regions, reduce friction for players switching platforms, and help stabilize participation in seasonal events. Separately, Bethesda has said its 2026 plans aim to make the West Virginia–set game more activity-dense, with a focus on deepening existing systems and introducing new ways to engage with current content rather than adding features indiscriminately. These efforts come as the studio continues juggling new Starfield content and The Elder Scrolls 6.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
While Fallout 76 cross-play is not expected in the near term, smaller netcode changes remain a possibility. Bethesda has introduced a range of such improvements over the years, including instancing upgrades, increased stash limits, networking optimizations, and vendor inventory synchronization. As for the task at hand, the developer has been consistent over the years in communicating that its Creation Engine simply wasn't built with cross-platform multiplayer in mind. The issue is ostensibly one of SDK aggregation, as the PlayStation, Xbox, and PC versions of the game essentially each implement multiplayer their own way. There is a semblance of standardization, however, as PC users have always been able to play Fallout 76 with their peers no matter whether they purchased the game via Steam, Microsoft Store, GOG, or Bethesda's own (now-discontinued) launcher.
Fallout 76
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