The celebration of Fallout 4's anniversary has turned into a disaster for Bethesda, as the game's recent Steam reviews have plummeted to 'Mostly Negative' following the controversial launch of the Anniversary Edition.
Released just ten days ago on November 20, 2025, the Anniversary Edition has been met with widespread criticism from the gaming community. Players are reporting serious technical issues including corrupted save files, broken mods, and game launch failures that have rendered the title unplayable for some.
Technical Troubles Mount
According to numerous player reports on Steam, the Anniversary Edition update has caused significant disruption to the decade-old game. Many users are experiencing unrecoverable crashes and being told they no longer own the game despite having purchased it years ago.
One Steam user, MordTheReaper, lamented: 'Anniversary Edition has bricked my game. Unrecoverable crashes, corrupted saves, all the stuff we've come to expect from Bethesda. I uninstalled after nearly 700 hours in this game since this update broke all my saves.'
Mod Community Crisis
The most consistent complaint revolves around the update's impact on mods. The Anniversary Edition has disabled countless existing mods, continuing a pattern that has plagued Bethesda games for years. This issue previously affected Fallout London and other modding projects.
Another user, shinra33459, expressed the community's frustration: 'For the love of all things holy, Bethesda, stop updating games that are over a decade old. We saw this with Skyrim where you morons decided to cram an anniversary edition update down everyone's throats in 2021, breaking everyone's mods.'
The sentiment was echoed by SkinnyFish, who noted: 'Modders built the soul of this game. Bethesda keeps trying to sell it back to us.'
Historical Pattern of Problems
This isn't the first time Bethesda has faced backlash for game updates. The company has a long history of problematic patches that often create more issues than they solve. Before Starfield's launch, fans were already preparing to fix the game themselves, anticipating similar problems.
Following last year's next-gen update for Fallout 4, the two most popular mods were specifically designed to remove the update entirely. The current Steam review rating represents the lowest point for Fallout 4 in over eight years, though the overall rating remains 'Very Positive' due to historical reviews.
The Anniversary Edition includes existing content such as the six official expansions, over 150 pieces of Creative Club content, and fan-made Creations, with only minimal new extras added for the anniversary celebration.
The update is available across multiple platforms including Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5, with a Nintendo Switch 2 version planned for next year.
