Fallout 76's Steam launch delayed a week due to coronavirus disruption

Fallout 76's massively ambitious new NPC-adding Wastelanders expansion won't release on April 7, and has been pushed back a week to April 14. This is the second time Wastelanders has been delayed.

Fallout 76's much-needed game-changing facelift is coming later than expected. Wastelanders, a free mega-expansion that adds human NPCs, factions, and singleplayer-like instanced areas, has been delayed seven days due to coronavirus disruption. The Steam release has also been delayed to April 14, too.

The issue is devs have to work from home and don't have direct access to each other, or certain tech in the offices. The health crisis has made it harder for Bethesda to not only develop the expansion, but also to test it out before it goes live. As we've seen from Fallout 76's rather drab launch in 2018, the game always needs as much testing as it can get.

"Like others around the world, we're dealing with the critical situation that's currently affecting so many of us. For the safety of everyone, we have transitioned to remote work, and are limiting our in-person interactions," Bethesda wrote in an update post.

"This has obviously changed the way we work, but rest assured that critical services for all our live games are fully operating.

"However, this has affected our ability to do the final testing we need for Wastelanders and we must move the release date a week, from April 7 to April 14. We've done everything we can to minimize the delay and can't wait for everyone to play. A special thanks to all our Private Test Server players for all your help."

Wastelanders will release on April 17, 2020 on all platforms, and Fallout 76 will likewise launch on Steam as a full-priced game.