Next year's Fallout 76 major expansion will explore a 'prequel story to Fallout 3'

A few weeks ago Bethesda Studios hit the big red button and announced that both Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas remasters are in pre-production, but that wasn't all—there was also news of Fallout 76's next major expansion.

"Fallout 76 continues to be home to millions of players exploring Appalachia together," an official news post from Bethesda explains. "With nearly 70 free updates released to date, the journey is far from over. In fact, we have a major Fallout 76 expansion planned for next year; Raven Rock, a prequel story to Fallout 3."

The last major expansion for Fallout 76 saw players venture to Ohio for the first time in Fallout lore in the Burning Springs expansion. Released around the Fallout TV show's season 2, Burning Springs was meant to marry the game with the show and its Fallout 3/ New Vegas inspirations; aka, "desert, deathclaws, and raiders."

But if Raven Rock is going to be a Fallout 3 prequel then, first off, it's going to be a very early one: 76 takes place over 100 years before Fallout 3. Secondly it'll venture over to the other side of the map, as it'll probably head to the Capital Wasteland—which is east of Vault 76—specifically to Raven Rock or Site R, a former military base and shelter built into the mountains.

If I had to guess what we'll be doing here, I'd say it'll likely have something to do with the Abraham Lincoln AI superfan ZAX since it would've been active at this time around the years Fallout 76 takes place. But we'll have to wait quite a while longer to get any solid information on the expansion as it's not set to release until next year.

I'm all for exploring more regions in Fallout 76, and while I'm a little sad we won't be seeing any more of Ohio for the foreseeable future, a Fallout 3 prequel ahead of the remake is exactly the kind of expansion I'll head back to Appalachia for.

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Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.