Fallout 4 was an object of controversy from the very beginning, as the first trailer for Bethesda’s game released three years ago featured only real-time footage that didn't look particularly "next-gen." It shouldn't be that surprising, as Fallout 4 was created using Bethesda's own Creation Engine, which is based on Gamebryo, originally created by Numerical Design Limited (NDL) back in 1991.
History likes to repeat itself, and Bethesda had to face the same accusations after the big Fallout 76 reveal. In an interview with GameStar, Bethesda Executive Producer Todd Howard explained that players may not have the best understanding of the process behind making a game. "I think a lot of people, who are not making games don’t understand what the word “engine” stands for,” Howard said. “They think the engine is this one thing, we view it as technology. There’s a lot of different pieces and for every game, parts of that change."
"Some people talk about Gamebryo but we haven’t used that in a decade. A lot of our engine contains a lot of middleware like Havoc. For Fallout 76 we have changed a lot,” he continued. “The game uses a new renderer, a new lighting system and a new system for the landscape generation. For Starfield even more of it changes. And for The Elder Scrolls 6, out there on the horizon even more. We like our editor. It allows us to create worlds really fast and the modders know it really well," Howard concluded.
It's hard to understand the complicated situation and Howard's claims that Bethesda is not using the Gamebryo features may be even more confusing, as it's the real base of their Creation Engine. It also sounds like Howard's teams won't create a new engine in the near future, and the updated version of Creation will be the base of the next Fallout game and also The Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield.
Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of Skyrim and Fallout 4, welcome you to Fallout 76, the online prequel where every surviving human is a real person. Work together, or not, to survive. Under the threat of nuclear annihilation, you’ll experience the largest, most dynamic world ever created in the legendary Fallout universe.
Fallout 76 will be available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC November 14, 2018.