Why Angry Fans are Calling the Fallout 76 PC Beta "A Joke"

Fallout 76's PC beta debacle has the game on the defensive.

Article by Matt Kim, News Editor

31 October 2018

Yesterday Bethesda opened up the Fallout 76 beta to PC and PS4 players after holding exclusive beta tests on the Xbox One. The rollout wasn't smooth and player reactions ranged from anger to expectant shrugs. "This is a Bethesda game after all," the joke goes.

The PC beta for Fallout 76 was off to a bad start almost immediately when players discovered that launching the beta ended up deleting Fallout 76 completely from PC (and some Xbox) players. Players who lost their pre-loaded Fallout 76 beta were asked to re-download the game, something that could take hours given its 48GB size.

By the time players were able to redownload the beta, the testing window for Fallout 76 would have been over (it was only a 4-hour beta test). By way of apology Bethesda is extending the hours for today's beta but for some the damage was done. Overreactions, common in the video game community, drove many to publicly declare they've cancelled their pre-orders for Fallout 76.

Others referred to Bethesda's own blog post prior to the Fallout 76 beta that there will be bugs expected during the beta. Since bugs and Bethesda game launches go almost hand-in-hand many others found the humor in the PC beta debacle. Of course, nobody imagined there would be a bug so bad that it'd delete a copy of Fallout 76. That's next level stuff.

*Downloads Beta* *Game deletes itself* The Entire PC Community: pic.twitter.com/n7cCBbxpyE
— Kyle Santanatoglia (@KYLEZOOKI091) October 30, 2018

#Fallout76 PC players are like oh no how could this happen. Fallout new California is just like pic.twitter.com/jpqJTB6WxA
— Charlotte katakuri (@The_Mochi_man12) October 30, 2018

I feel bad for the people that had the redownload bug during last night's BETA test. #Fallout76 pic.twitter.com/iuhgJklU4f
— RetroWaveDave™ (@RetroWaveDave) October 31, 2018

Fallout 76 bug that gifts you what every boy wants. pic.twitter.com/xSWczjXSQh
— Neo Kaiser 0 (@Neo_Kaiser) October 31, 2018

It didn't help that Fallout 76 was divisive to begin with. Many longtime Fallout fans and Bethesda fans were hesitant when Bethesda announced that Fallout 76 would be a multiplayer-only game with live-service elements. Early criticism focused on how Bethesda was capitalizing on the live-service trend in gaming. And this is after a lore inconsistency in Fallout 76 with the Brotherhood of Steel further caused a stir in the hardcore community.

Bethesda, if you break away from Steam make sure your launcher can launcher correctly. from r/Fallout

All of this has put Bethesda on the back foot as they get ready for the Fallout 76 launch in just a few weeks. Of course, this was always to be expected with an untested concept like a multiplayer Fallout game. You can read our Fallout 76 previews here or check out our Fallout 76 guide for more info.

Fallout 76 is coming out on November 14 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.