Fallout 76 Only Features Cosmetic Microtransactions; All Post Launch Content Free

In an interview with Metro Game Central, Bethesda’s CEO Pete Hines spoke candidly about the publisher’s business model for Fallout 76, and it sounds like a boon for gamers. Fallout 76 will only feature cosmetic Microtransactions and all other post-launch content will be free of charge.

Microtransactions in video games was a hot potato topic last year, in particular, after publisher EA came under scrutiny for what many considered excessive use of them in Star Wars Battlefront II. Game Central noted to Hines that the fallout (excuse the pun) from that incident has caused many publishers to carefully consider how additional content is monetized in games moving forward. Hines went onto explain Bethesda’s own policy for Fallout 76:

“We have microtransactions in Fallout 76. But, they’re only cosmetic. Anything we’re selling for real money you can also buy with in-game currency that you get as a reward while you play. And part of the main reason we’re doing it is because we want to provide all of the post-launch content that we do for free.”

Another interesting takeaway from the interview in relation to Fallout 76 was Hines vision for the game’s lifecycle, which he claims will be “forever.” He discusses the plan for the game’s future content using Fallout 3 as an example, which he alludes as part of the reason why Bethesda are interested in an MMORPG version of the Fallout series. He said:

“Part of our thing is we need to get people in the game and see how they respond. We’ve even taken this approach for past DLC. I don’t know if you remember Fallout 3? The big consumer reaction when we launched that game was that they were all upset that it had an ending. And we were like, ‘All the previous games had an ending! We thought we were sticking to what that franchise is…’ But they didn’t want an ending and we had a couple of DLCs in the works but the third one we did we were like, ‘Well, we need a DLC that removes the ending of the game and allows you to continue on’. So 76 is going to be like that.”

Fallout 76’s beta is due to launch sometime this October, with the full game set to release on Nov. 14.