Todd Howard began his E3 2019 conference by taking a sharp stab at his own company.

“We have had an incredibly exciting year at Bethesda Games Studios. Given some of that excitement, I’m impressed you’re still here.”

Howard was of course referencing some of the harsh criticisms that the studio received for its handling of the Fallout 76 release. In addition to a long opening video which expressed the fact that Bethesda has been listening to this feedback, it reinforced that sentiment by outlining a new patch for Fallout 76 which the team claims will “fundamentally change the game”. Titled Wastelanders, this massive update will arrive in the fall of this year and add some much requested features to the game. Aside from basic stability and bug fixes, there will now be human NPC with fully-voiced dialog trees and full-fledged questlines. Bethesda likens Fallout 76 to an ongoing story. It claims that year one of the game’s release was about players exiting their vaults and populating the wasteland. Year two will be about “people coming back to reclaim it”. Additionally, a new mode will be added to the base game titled Nuclear Winter. This mode will be a 52-player battle-royale where players compete to the death for the title of Overseer for Vault 51. Have a look at the trailer below to this mode for yourself.

The Fallout 76: Wastelanders DLC will be made available for free on all platforms this fall. Until then, Bethesda is hoping to entice new players by letting them try out Fallout 76 for free during E3 week (June 10-17).  For a full list of these updates, please have a look at Bethesda’s update notes. Also, be sure to stay tuned as more details are made available.

SOURCE: Press Release