It’d be fair to say the road to redemption for Fallout 76 has been a long one, but over the years, Bethesda Game Studios has continually built on what was a fragile foundation.
It’s become a Fallout theme park, where you can build your own settlement, wander across huge regions, and, of course, play with friends to survive the apocalypse together. Still, the big question posed to the development team has long been focused on cross-play – so does Fallout 76 have cross-platform functionality? There’s good news and bad news.
Is Fallout 76 cross-platform?
Unfortunately, Fallout 76 only has partial crossplay support. The only two platforms that can play on the same servers are Xbox and PC, but only in the case where PC players are accessing the game through Game Pass. If you are on a PlayStation console or bought the game on Steam, you will only be able to play with others on those respective platforms. This is similar to how Elden Ring and Ark: Survival Evolved handle their partial cross-platform support.
The story is also a disappointing one for those hoping Fallout 76 would at least have cross-save functionality. There is no way to transfer your progress off whatever platform you begin playing the game on if you end up needing to switch platforms to play with friends. Should you pick the game up on a second platform, you will have to start your entire Fallout 76 adventure from scratch.
Todd Howard previously told Kinda Funny Games in April 2024 that “we keep looking into it [cross-platform play], but [Fallout 76] wasn’t designed that way from the beginning.” While that was a bit vague, he was a little clearer about cross-progression. “Here’s what I would say, which is for us the more important thing is cross-progression than cross-play — and we do separate them — we’d love to have it all,” Howard said. “It’s something we are looking at, but I will say it’s quite — the way that [Fallout 76] was architected from the beginning — a technical lift. Not saying we are or aren’t doing anything, we are looking at it and seeing where that’s going to impact people.”
Still, people still want those features, and October 2025 brought another update.
As part of a roundtable developer interview (thanks, FRVR), creative director John Rush and production director Bill Lacoste seemingly shut the door on cross-platform play.
“We do get asked about this a lot. It’s something we talk about internally a lot, but it is just a huge technical hurdle,” Lacoste said. “Especially 7 years into the development of the game. Those are, basically, things you have to determine at the very beginning when you start making the game.”
“We do discuss it, we actually discuss it frequently, looking for any sort of paths or solutions,” Rush added. “So, it’s not forgotten, it’s not a hard no, but it’s definitely not a yes.”
