‘Fallout 76’ Leaker Gets Xbox, Twitter Accounts Suspended

Bethesda and Microsoft are reportedly levying harsh punishments against Fallout 76 stress test players who violate the nondisclosure agreement they agreed to.

Ahead of the Fallout 76 beta that’s taking place soon, Microsoft and Bethesda held a stress test trial for Xbox Insiders to give them an early preview of the game. One user posted a photo of the NDA online that made players agree to several points, many of which were the usual restrictions that said players aren’t allowed to take photos, videos, audio recordings. They couldn’t even talk about the game unless instructed to and weren’t supposed to let others watch them play or leave the game unattended while running.

As punishment for violating these terms, the NDA said that “Microsoft reserves the right to terminate your Xbox Live account, user profile and/or device access to all or part of the Xbox Live service” without notice and for any reason. One player found out firsthand how serious Microsoft and Bethesda were about the NDA with a Reddit user saying that their friend posted a minute-and-a-half video of the game to Twitter that included their username in the clip at one point. The leaker’s Twitter account was taken down along with his Xbox account with the poster saying that the leaker could no longer buy Xbox Game Pass or anything else through the console.

The leaker later got an email from Bethesda that said he wouldn’t be able to participate the stress test nor could be partake in the game’s beta until October 25th. Twitter support also informed the Fallout 76 player that Bethesda was responsible for the Twitter account takedown, though specifics weren’t given on that subject. The Twitter account was later restored, the original poster said in a follow-up post on Reddit, but the player’s Xbox account is still being penalized for the leak. The second post said that player’s Xbox account is suspended from Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass, and the Xbox Insider program until January 1st.

Fallout 76’s FAQ says that the game requires an Xbox Live Gold subscription to play since Bethesda has shifted to the multiplayer format, so this means that the player won’t even get to play the game that he was stress testing. The player contacted Bethesda about the bans with the studio responding to say that it couldn’t overturn the bans, but the user did regain access to his Twitter account.

Fallout 76 is scheduled to release on November 14th.