Fallout 76 was debuted at Bethesda’s E3 presentation with a huge amount of gameplay and information. Director Todd Howard revealed that the game would always be online, with no human NPCs; every human in Fallout 76 will be a human player. Multiplayer appears to be at the core of Fallout 76. Some players are concerned, however, that they will be unable to enjoy the game as a solo experience.

Todd Howard stated during the presentation that Fallout 76 would be playable solo. However, he was asked for clarification during a later interview with Geoff Keighley; Howard wouldn’t state that solo players could not encounter other players out in the wasteland. Each Fallout world will only include “dozens” of players. However, it seems that players will not be able to turn that online function off; at least not right away.

Private Worlds in Fallout 76

This clarification came when Howard was speaking on the subject of mod support. “We love mods, so we are 100 percent committed to [offering mods] in 76 as well,” he stated; “We will not being able to do that at launch, though. Our goal for launch — this is really new for us — is to have a well-running, robust service, and then some period later, we’re currently still designing what that service looks like, you’ll be able to have your own private world, and be able to mod it and do all of that.”

He spoke of private worlds in the context of modding, However, that private world functionality would also remove random other players. While the purpose of it is clearly so that players are not exposed to unapproved mods, players hoping for a more traditional solo Bethesda experience may be able to utilize this system for that purpose. However, it seems that players will not be able to do so at launch. It’s unknown how long fans will have to wait for this system to be made available.