Bethesda's Pete Hines Explains WHY Fallout 76 is Not on Nintendo Switch

With Fallout 76 only a few weeks away, you could safely assume that the upcoming Bethesda RPG isn't coming to the Nintendo Switch. But if it's any consolation, the game company really wanted to make it work.

Bethesda spoke earlier today at PAX Aus. One of the topics of discussion is precisely WHY the multiplayer Fallout game wouldn't be coming to the Switch. Marketing executive Pete Hines explained that while the studio is very interested in the console, it just wasn't doable. He then clarifies that Bethesda hasn't ruled the Switch out for future products. Instead, they take pride in their port support.

"The Switch is something I can say with certainty that it's a part of every conversation with every dev we have now about what we're doing going forward because we consider it to be a viable platform. If the game will work on it, we want it to be on every platform possible. Fallout 76 is not because it just wasn't doable.
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I enjoy us being seen as the third-party leader in terms of supporting Switch. People go, 'Hey, you've got a lot more stuff [on Switch] than this publisher or that publisher.' That's what I want Bethesda to be known as. We're guys who will take some risks."

With that said, Hines also made it clear that they are a business with the intention to make money. They consider the Switch to be a profitable venture.

"You go where the money is because that's how you stay in business," he said. "What we have seen compels us to say, '[the Switch] is a viable platform for the kind of things we do going forward.'"

So far, Skyrim, Doom, and Wolfenstein have all made their way to the portable console, with Doom: Eternal and Elder Scrolls Legends planned for the same.

The idea of a multiplayer Bethesda RPG on the Switch may sound appealing to most. Nintendo currently has a reputation for unreliable network play, after all. While the company recently launched their own paid online service, it's not been long enough to see the investment improve online infrastructure.