Bethesda is making big changes to the traditional Fallout franchise next month when Fallout 76 launches. Outside of the new location, the experience is going entirely online for the first time and even going as far as removing human NPC characters entirely. Following the recent preview coverage, fans discovered a potentially major plot hole within the game involving the Brotherhood of Steel faction. The discussion has gotten so loud that Bethesda has finally issued an official response to the claims.

In a new Instagram post, Bethesda posted an image of the Appalachian branch of the Brotherhood of Steel as well as the lore as to why and how the group has reached this region in Fallout 76. In keeping with established Brotherhood of Steel lore, After a group of survivors reached a Californian bunker in 2077, army Captain Roger Maxson started the Brotherhood of Steel and utilized a functioning satellite to extend their reach across America including the Appalachia region of West Virginia.

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Just last week, Bethesda's VP of Marketing Pete Hines, who's very active in answering questions on social media, even weighed in on the topic saying that the company doesn't take the lore and things that are cannon lightly, holding discussions to ask how certain things can fit within the timeline. That said, he also clarified that the studio has ultimately changed things over the years in order to not be held down by what someone wrote 20 plus years ago even in franchises that they've created. So while developers are careful to respect the past, it's also sometimes necessary to bend the franchise a bit in order to advance it forward.

The Brotherhood of Steel dust-up started after a document was discovered in a preview version of Fallout 76 detailing the Brotherhood of Steel faction and their activity in the region. Reddit users took issue with the mention due to the game being set in 2102 and the earliest recorded activity of the gang in 2077 after setting up at the in Lost Hills bunker in California.

Additional franchise lore reveals that the Vertibird, Fallout's military-style aircraft, wasn't obtained by the Brotherhood until sometime in the 2200's, making the group's journey from California to West Virginia at a much earlier time period seemingly implausible. As players have now discovered, Bethesda has once again found a creative and easy way around the lore problem.