Fallout 76 goes native on PS5 and Xbox Series with 60 FPS
Bethesda's The Slasher update brings native PS5 and Xbox Series versions of Fallout 76, a targeted 60 FPS and a story that unfolds week by week.
Fallout 76 has finally gone native on current-generation consoles. Update 1.7.26.13, released on 15 September, adds dedicated PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions of the game alongside its newest content drop, The Slasher.
What the native versions deliver
Bethesda is targeting 60 FPS across Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PS5 Pro. 4K resolution is supported on compatible displays with Xbox Series X, Xbox One X and PS5 Pro, while PS5 and PS4 Pro move to 1440p and older platforms stay at 1080p. VRR is supported too, capped to 60 FPS, on Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS5 and PS5 Pro.
Owners have to redownload the entire game from their platform's store to get the new build, and the download is unusually large: 119 GB on Steam, 119.7 GB on the Microsoft Store, 101 GB on Xbox and 92.2 GB on PlayStation. Bethesda says the update repackages the game's files across all platforms, so once installed the game should take up less space than it does today.
The Slasher unfurls week by week
The Slasher is a cult of clown-masked fanatics stalking Appalachia, with bodies turning up across the wasteland and rumours pointing to the return of the Pint-Sized Slasher. Unlike most of the game's major updates, the story rolls out gradually over the weeks that follow, with players guided by in-game broadcasts from The Debunker Radio after tuning into the “Breaking News” station on the Pip-Boy.
Seasons and crafting
Season 26, Beware The Blood Moon, is live, and Bethesda is introducing Legacy Seasons so players can earn rewards from seasons they missed, starting with Armor Ace and the Power Patrol in Cold Steel. Unique weapon crafting now lets players change legendary mods on existing gear and add a fourth, and the usual new seasonal fish have arrived for autumn.
Our opinion
The native console versions are the real headline, and they have been a long time coming. Fallout 76 has spent years running as a backwards-compatible last-generation game, so a proper 60 FPS target with current-gen tuning is the kind of upgrade you feel immediately rather than read about in patch notes. The cost is that enormous redownload, and 119 GB on Steam is a serious ask in a crowded autumn, but a permanently smaller install takes some of the sting out of it. The weekly Slasher rollout is the more interesting experiment. Bethesda is betting that a story told slowly keeps players logging in, and the Pip-Boy radio framing is a smart way to keep everyone on the same page without a cutscene every Tuesday. Whether it lands depends on whether the weekly beats are worth the wait.