Following the frustrating studio closures carried out by Xbox the other day, gamers have begun to make their dissatisfaction known across all platforms. This justified anger has reached all the way to Fallout 76, where players have dropped a nuke on Xbox boss Phil Spencer and his settlement in retaliation.
For some brief context, Fallout 76’s pseudo-MMO world is populated with a handful of nuclear bombs that players can actually launch at each other. These bombs are locked behind difficult dungeons and take lots of preparation to use, but that was clearly no deterrent for the subjects of today’s story.
Late yesterday, Twitter/X user @Sam_Snydes shared an image of Fallout 76’s in-game map that showed Phil Spencer’s settlement (denoted by his popular P3 username) in the center of a massive radiated zone:
Lmao someone nuked Phil Spencer’s camp in Fallout 76 pic.twitter.com/DxfcIdH8ob
— Sam (@Sam_Snydes) May 9, 2024
This red circle indicates that a nuclear payload had been dropped on Spencer’s home base. Shortly after Sam shared this image, user @real1090jake shared footage of them walking around the Xbox head’s nuked base and took credit for dropping the bomb:
Guilty🤷🏽♂️ pic.twitter.com/3n57WOqHXH
— Joe Grizzly Bitch🔪 (@real1090jake) May 9, 2024
From the violent orange haze in the video, it’s clear to see that P3’s camp is no longer a safe spot to hang out. The user claimed that Spencer did not attempt to fight back at all, but nonetheless, many users have lauded the player’s actions in the hours since. Comments across both Reddit and Twitter have commended him for sticking it to Spencer and making his time in-game a little less copacetic.
This event is minor, but it speaks to a greater sentiment echoing across forums and social media currently. Xbox has repeatedly proven themselves to be a lousy parent, laying off thousands and shutting down entire studios in an attempt to crawl out of the pit of money that they created by spending billions of dollars on obscene acquisitions. Even typically admired figureheads like Phil Spencer have betrayed the community’s faith. You can only get away with saying one thing and doing another for so long, and the players have clearly had enough.
Perhaps it’s too hopeful to believe that actions like this will make any difference, but we certainly appreciate the motivation behind them. Keep up the good work.