Bethesda Assures Fans Fallout 76 Is Not Going Free-to-Play

Like any culture that’s got a strong online presence, the video game culture is one that’s mired in mystery, rumor, and speculation. Why, one of the appeals of those old gaming magazines and official strategy guides was, back in the day, they gave you the ultimate authority on all things game-related, allowing you to dispel rumors or have the latest gaming news before your schoolyard chums. And that included, of course, the off-hand rumor or industry speculation that these journalists would oven dig up.

But now that anyone can make rumors, just about everyone does: and while it seems as of late Smash Brothers is the subject of most speculation, that doesn’t mean other games are kept out of the loop. Specifically, there have been fans who have been speculating for a while now that Fallout 76 would soon be making the leap to a “free-to-play” game, in response to the fact that it’s terrible and very few people are still playing the game, and fueled by the fact that physical copies of the game are still in short supply in Australia.

…That’s not a whole lot to go on, obviously, so this particular rumor was never that reasonable. Still, it grew big enough to warrant an official response from Bethesda’s Twitter account, when one angry fan began demanding a refund if the game should go free to play. Here’s what they had to say:

“There is no truth to this rumor.”

…And that sums it up. It’s only logical that Bethesda would push back against this rumor, because while there have been a lot of games that would have benefited from going free-to-play sooner rather than later (Battleborn) Fallout 76 isn’t one of them: Bethesda wouldn’t want to hurt their reputation with fans any further than they already have at this point.

So calm down. Give it a year or two, then you can start wondering when it’ll be going free-to-play.