Summary
There’s a perspective from fans that active work on a live-service title impedes the progress of future games, and there may be some truth to that. Naughty Dog cancelled The Last of Us Online amid fears that the studio would be sucked into actively developing it for a decade.
There are some concerns that Bethesda’s resurgent live-service titleFallout 76could be hampering the development ofFallout 5, but according to an interview TheGamer had with 76’s creative director Jon Rush, this is definitively not the case.

“Absolutely not,” Rush told us. “I can understand that perspective, watching from the outside in, but no, absolutely not. If anything, when Fallout 5 does come out, it’ll make it even more impactful. But [Fallout 76] isn’t holding anything back.”
Fallout This, Fallout That
Fallout 76 has certainly had an interesting life cycle. The game was critically panned on release, with critics pointing to the lifeless nature of a world without non-player characters and numerous technical issues. However, Fallout 76 has always had a consistent player base and Bethesda has continued to support and update the game, culminating in a massive spike in players after the release of Amazon’s Fallout television series. All in all, the general opinion of Fallout 76 appears to have turned around.
According to Rush, Fallout 76 and its Appalachian playground are only going to “get bigger” as the team is “full of ideas” on how to expand the world of 76. You canread our full interviewwith Jon Rush here.

As for Fallout 5, there is currently no information regarding another mainline entry in the Fallout series. With Bethesda currently working onThe Elder Scrolls VI, we likely won’t see Fallout 5 for some time yet.
Fallout 76
WHERE TO PLAY
Taking the Fallout series into the MMO space, Fallout 76 is a prequel to the mainline games. You’ll have to traverse the massive open world of Appalachia in order to build bases, survive, and grow stronger.