Fallout 4 just hit 10 years, and Bethesda tried to mark the occasion with an Anniversary Edition. On paper, easy win. In practice, the November 10 rollout faceplanted hard, especially on PC. Mods imploded, performance took a dive, and the value pitch is... generous, to put it nicely.
What this Anniversary Edition actually is
The package includes the base game, all six expansions, and over 150 curated Creation Club items. Basically, a definitive bundle and a modernization pass. It should have been a clean repack with a single update and a pat on the back. Instead, the moment it went live, players started hitting walls.
What broke the moment it dropped
PC took the worst of it. The update knocked out a ton of widely used mods and the tools they rely on. Even players who tried a totally vanilla launch reported crashes, performance drops, endless loading screens, and saves going sideways. A not-small number said the game would not open or close properly at all.
Social media did what it does. Some folks joked about the update delivering 'maximum nostalgia' in all the wrong ways, and clips/memes started flying from accounts like Jez Corden and Kennedy Gaming.
The pricing problem (and why people are mad)
Here is the issue the community keeps circling back to: everything in this Anniversary Edition already existed. Between the original expansions, the Creation Club, and the Game of the Year edition, longtime players have basically seen all of this before, often for less money.
The numbers do not help:
- $59.99 for the full Anniversary Edition.
- $39.99 for the upgrade if you already own the game.
- $39.99 is also what the Game of the Year edition has cost, and that already includes the base game and all DLC.
Bethesda says fixes are coming
Shortly after launch, Bethesda acknowledged the mess and said they were 'actively investigating' reports. A hotfix is planned for the following week to tackle Creation Club issues and DLC failures. Beyond that, two larger patches are on the way: one targeted for the week of November 24, and another in the first half of December.
The catch: they have not detailed what those patches actually change. That uncertainty has mod authors holding off on updating their tools, because no one wants to do double or triple work if the next patch breaks everything again. Plenty of players are worried the fixes will land like more wrecking balls.
'Dude Bethesda fucking annihilated fallout 4 Half of my mods no longer work due to "missing files" despite being perfectly fine yesterday Loading anything crashes the game, I can’t install shit bc of "missing files" What the FUCK was the strat here Bethesda'
So what should you do?
If your Fallout 4 setup is built on a lot of mods, the safest move is to wait this out. Honestly, the advice floating around right now is to sit tight until 2026 if you care about stability and a working mod stack.
Awful timing, too
This all lands right as interest in the franchise is spiking again. Season 2 of the Fallout TV series is due in December, and there are multiple Fallout projects rumored to be in development. Instead of riding the wave, this update dents the momentum.
Bottom line
The Anniversary Edition should have been a victory lap. Instead, it is turned into one of the messiest moments the series has had in years. Bethesda says more info on those patches is coming soon. When we actually get the details, I will break them down and what they mean for your saves and your mods.
Playing through it? Holding off? Tell me how your update went.