Despite its drastic improvement in recent years, for many, Fallout 76 is and forever will be remembered exclusively for its spectacularly disastrous launch, marred by the game being plagued by thousands of bugs and Bethesda’s “we aren’t planning on doing anything about it” response to the canvas bag and Nuka Dark Rum controversies.
Nate Purkeypile, the developer of The Axis Unseen and former Lead Artist at Bethesda, recently spoke at GDC 2025 about his decision to leave the company, revealing that one of the reasons behind his shift to indie development was the community’s reaction to Fallout 76 and describing the situation by saying, “The internet can be really awful,” apparently downplaying Bethesda’s own role in the backlash that followed the game’s release.
Bethesda
As stated by Purkeypile (via PC Gamer), he didn’t want to deal with the wave of criticism that might arise from The Elder Scrolls 6, expressing belief that even if the highly anticipated sequel to Bethesda’s flagship series comes out great, it will still be lambasted online.
While there’s no denying that even the greatest games have their fair share of haters, the other part of the former Lead Artist’s statement is less clear-cut, with Purkeypile, somewhat inexplicably, lumping “death threats” and “hour-long YouTube videos” together – treating them as if they were the same thing, despite the former being made by the lowest of the low and the latter typically created by dedicated fans concerned about the direction of their favorite game series.
The developer further stated that “if you put out a game that people don’t like, you know the internet’s gonna treat you like they’re clubbing baby seals,” once again seemingly soft-pedaling the responsibility of AAA studios in the backlash their titles often face. “I was pretty sure that no matter what I didn’t put in a game, it wasn’t going to be anything like that with that level of exposure,” Purkeypile added, pointing out that indie games don’t face as much criticism as the titles from major studios.
Whether Purkeypile was solely addressing the kind of “criticism” universally condemned by the gaming community – such as threats of violence and doxxing – or suggesting that the internet itself is the real issue, rather than AAA studios releasing subpar games, remains open to one’s interpretation due to the ambiguity of the original statement.
A similar ambiguity was recently noted in an interview with an anonymous Ubisoft employee, who revealed that the studio had assembled a legal team prepared to sue anyone who harasses Assassin’s Creed Shadows developers.
By failing to clarify what “harassment” entailed, the revelation divided the gaming community, with some trusting that Ubisoft meant genuine harassment tactics like the ones described above and others worrying that harmless online trolling or criticism of Assassin’s Creed Shadows might also be categorized as harassment, with the studio using the threat of legal action as an intimidation tactic.
So, what are your thoughts on Nate Purkeypile’s statement? How do you interpret his words? Share your thoughts down in the comments!
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