With Bethesda’s Fallout 76 launching in just over a month, the publisher has decided to open the gates just a bit for those willing to help their team beta test the game.
Their aptly-named B.E.T.A. program, which stands for “Break-It Early Test Application,” will hit Xbox One players on October 23rd, and come to PC and PlayStation 4 gamers the following week, on October 30th.
The company has posted their B.E.T.A. FAQ with more information as well as how to submit feedback during the process. Some important tidbits from the FAQ:
- The game won’t be live 24/7. The idea of this program is to stress-test their servers, so they’ll be making the game playable for about four to eight hours each day. Funnelling all gamers into a smaller timeframe means more people are likely to be online at once, and they’ll be able to see a greater load on the networks running the game.
- Players will need Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus to participate in the B.E.T.A. on consoles, as well as a free Bethesda.net account.
- Expect to use up a lot of bandwidth: the beta application is 45GB in size, and will not immediately become the full game when it launches in November. It is not going to be available to pre-load ahead of the beta launch dates.
- The team at Bethesda is planning to allow for game data to transfer between the beta period and the actual game, though the wording on this is unclear as to whether it will actually happen.
- The only way to get access to the beta is via pre-order of Fallout 76.
As noted in a press release, Bethesda will be “showcasing much more of the game in the next few weeks, including tips for multiplayer, wasteland survival, character builds & customization and more,” indicating that their marketing push is likely going to continue throughout the impending launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 which is likely to take over much of the gaming discussion for, well, the rest of time.
Or, you know, until Grand Theft Auto 6 is a thing.
If anyone is poised to disrupt some of that conversation, Bethesda is the one to do it.
Fallout 76 launches on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on November 14th, 2018.