Fallout 76 has seen a significant increase in player numbers, reaching over a million players in a single day according to Bethesda.

However, the lack of cross-play in Fallout 76 has drawn attention, particularly as most multiplayer games now incorporate this feature.

In an interview with Kinda Funny Games, Todd Howard, Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bethesda's development chief, addressed the absence of cross-play in Fallout 76, explaining that the game was not initially designed with cross-play in mind.

"We keep looking into it. It wasn't designed that way from the beginning," he said. "So obviously we get into server and database silos."

The game had a rocky launch in 2018. But the recent success of the Fallout TV show on Amazon Prime, helped propel the franchise's popularity. Meanwhile, Bethesda worked to improve Fallout 76, resulting in a more positive reception from players over the years.

Howard described the game as "sneaky popular" in recent years.

In addition to the lack of cross-play, Fallout 76 also lacks cross-progression, which Howard acknowledged as a significant issue.

He emphasized that cross-progression is more important to Bethesda than cross-play for Fallout 76, but technical challenges have hindered its implementation. Howard explained: "Here's what I would say, which is for us the more the important thing is cross-progression than cross-play — and we do separate them — we'd love to have it all."

While cross-play and cross-progression seem unlikely for Fallout 76, Howard hinted that future Bethesda games are likely to incorporate these features.

Starfield, their recent single-player adventure, already includes cross-progression between PC and Xbox.

Howard expressed the importance of these features for future games, stating: "Going forward in the world we want to be in, I think it's very important and something that you know in our future games that we're going to be really, really mindful about to make sure — in particular the progression — that where you pick up a game you're able no matter what screen you're on you're able to just keep going with your character and what you were doing."

Image credits: Casimiro PT on Shutterstock.