Fallout 76 Announces Fallout 1st Premium Membership

Bethesda Games Studios today revealed a slew of information about Fallout 76‘s private worlds, unlimited storage, and more… by introducing Fallout 1st, a premium membership for the game that includes all these features and more. The catch is that Fallout 1st costs $12.99 a month, or $99.99 a year. Also? It’s available now.

Given that the popular perception of Fallout 76 thus far has been of an MMO struggling to catch up after an extremely shaky launch, the reveal of Fallout 1st, and the features that are paywalled behind it, hasn’t gone particularly smooth. To get a better idea of just how much stuff folks only get if they subscribe, here’s a graphic, shared by Bethesda Game Studios as part of the announcement, that details exactly what comes with Fallout 1st:

“The community has been asking for the ability to play in private worlds since before the launch of Fallout 76, and we’re very excited to announce that they are coming to the game with Fallout 1st,” the Bethesda Game Studios announcement reads. “If you’re a Fallout 1st member, how you use your private world is completely up to you: Invite up to seven of your friends at a time (eight total people per private world) to join you in taking on the dangers of post-apocalyptic West Virginia, or play completely solo. All gameplay remains the same from Adventure Mode and all characters entering the Fallout 1st private worlds must be existing characters.”

There’s more, of course, but it basically continues on like that. “What a good deal this is,” the announcement seems to imply at every opportunity. And perhaps it’s going to lure in those extremely devoted Fallout 76 players, but that’s still a hefty price tag when compared to, say, the Xbox Game Pass, which allows folks to play a number of different video games through its subscription service. The value proposition is, for lack of a better word, skewed.

What do you make of Fallout 1st, the new premium membership? Is this something you actually see yourself buying, or is the value just not there for you? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!

Fallout 76 is currently available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You can check out all of our previous, extensive coverage of the title right here. Here’s a snippet of what we had to say in our official review when the game first released:

“As a long-time fan of the franchise and a huge lover of falling in deep with a rich narrative, I was very open to the idea of online Fallout even though on paper I shouldn’t have been. Though it’s not the co-op experience I was envisioning, I was excited to be able to play a familiar franchise with friends for the first time with a new shared-adventure.”