Microsoft boss Phil Spencer considered pulling the plug on Fallout 76 after Bethesda’s acquisition, but Sony ended up saving the game by adding it to PlayStation Now. Recently revealed court documents contain an email from Spencer dated September 2021, in which he talks about “moving on” from Fallout 76.
How did Sony save Fallout 76?
Bethesda’s foray into live service in 2018 landed with a thud and failed to woo players and critics. In September 2021, Spencer mentioned in an email that “this thing” has to hit 10 million monthly active users across all platforms, or it’s time to pull the plug. In other words, Fallout 76’s player base at the time didn’t warrant keeping servers alive.
Enter PS Now (now rolled into PS Plus). Spencer expressed his aversion to putting Microsoft games on PS Now because it was seen as a competitor to Xbox Game Pass. While pointing out that this is why Microsoft doesn’t allow Minecraft on Sony’s subscription service, he said that he was open to putting Fallout 76 on PS Now if it meant boosting player numbers. This exchange can be seen in the email below, extracted by TheGamer.
In light of Spencer’s past position, it’ll be interesting to see the implications of Sony’s Call of Duty deal on PS Plus and Game Pass.
