Fallout 76 Subscription Controversy Compounded by Major Tech Problems

Fallout 76 just received an update that introduced Fallout 1st, a premium service that lets subscribers host private worlds, among other perks. Unfortunately, many players who've signed up for Fallout 1st are finding out that their private worlds aren't as private as they'd like, and some have encountering devastating bugs related to those 1st exclusive items.

As spotted by Forbes contributor Paul Tassi, the Fallout 76 subreddit is lighting up with complaints from players who've paid the $12.99 per month or $99 per year price for Fallout 1st. Redditors claim that the 14.0 patch for Fallout 76 has introduced various bugs and issues. They're not all related to Fallout 1st, but the state of the private worlds feature and reports of the new premium scrapboxes deleting players' junk resources stand out the most.

The new eight-person private worlds are only private in so far as you're okay with anyone on your friends list joining you, as there's no way to set a world to invite-only. Bethesda's blog post outlining the features of Fallout 1st notes that a private world "will still stay active as long as one other player in the world is a Fallout 1st member," which means that an unwanted guest can also hang around in a private world instance if they're also a subscriber.

Multiple players on Reddit and Twitter have reported that the Fallout 1st scrapbox item is making their entire scrap collection disappear. The scrapbox is supposed to grant subscribers an unlimited scrap inventory, which is already one of several points of contention for committed Fallout 76 players who are critical of Fallout 1st's offerings. "I simply switched from a private server to a public server and lost 400 lbs of unrecoverable scrap," writes one Redditor. "Thanks BGS!"

Technical and quality-of-life issues with Fallout 1st aside, many Fallout 76 players still feel as though Bethesda has prioritized the launch of its subscription service ahead of more pressing fixes and additions that could be made. It doesn't help matters that Bethesda's initial tease for Fallout 1st coincided with the announcement that the highly anticipated Wastelanders update, which will add NPCs and new questlines to Fallout 76, is being delayed into early 2020.

Fallout 76's superfans have been patient and, in recent months, could celebrate that the game had improved since launch. Now it looks as though Bethesda has effectively undone some of that progress in the eyes of many of 76's fans. USG has reached out to Bethesda for comment on the issues players are encountering with Fallout 76's new patch and with Fallout 1st's features—we will update this post if we receive a response.