Bethesda announced Fallout 1st for Fallout 76 yesterday. While initial reactions for the service have been poor, I don’t necessarily think that it’s a bad idea for a certain type of Fallout 76 player.
Fallout 1st is a subscription service for Fallout 76. My first thoughts were about how few MMOs actually use subscriptions anymore, with WOW and Final Fantasy 14 being the only ones I could think of. However, the service isn’t compulsory for players, it will just offer a bunch of bonuses to players each month, should they choose to pay for the subscription. We live in a world where people want everything, even if they won’t use it. Fallout 76 is no exception to this, but the problem with players wanting everything is that most of the people complaining barely play the game.
Everyone refers to Fallout 76 as some sort of disaster, which it was at launch. I personally love the game, I think it’s a unique take on the Fallout universe, and offers something to scratch that MMO itch in the Fallout franchise. I know that there are other players out there who feel the same, because I watch their videos, see their images in Tweets, or read about their experiences in blog posts. It’s these players that Bethesda has introduced Fallout 1st for, and to be honest it isn’t a bad deal if you play the game regularly.
Fallout 1st includes access to Private Worlds, which are private servers, a Scrapbox with unlimited storage potential, a Survival Tent, which is a new placable fast travel point with everything you need, 1,650 Atoms, the in-game premium currency, a set of Ranger Armour, and an Icons and Emotes pack. While the additional content here is amazing, most of which has been requested by the community for some time now, it’s the Atoms that I want to focus on.
A Fallout 1st subscription costs you £11.99 a month, or you can save two months worth of cost by purchasing 12 months at once for £100. For £11.99 you can purchase 1,000 Atoms, with a bonus of 100 Atoms on top of that. For the same price, you’re getting all of the other bonuses, as well as 1,650 Atoms per month with Fallout 1st. It seems a bit mental, but Bethesda is really offering a huge discount on their in-game currency here for the sake of getting players to spend at least some money on their game.
Even if you think that all of the other content should be free, it’s undeniable that the Atoms alone make this subscription service worth it. There are loads of great items in the Atom shop, and to me the subscription would be a great way of encouraging me to pick some of it up. All of the other items make life so much easier in Fallout 76, from being able to fast travel to somewhere with a sleeping bag and somewhere to cook, to a chest that can store all of your scrap with no need to worry about storage. The Range Outfit is something that I do think all players should be able to access, because it’s the armour from Fallout New Vegas, and who doesn’t want that?
What I’m really trying to get across here is the sheer value for money in the Atoms alone with Fallout 1st. If you’re a player who wouldn’t normally buy in-game currency, then a subscription obviously wouldn’t ever appeal to you. For me, one of the key reasons I play MMOs like Fallout 76 is that they’re free outside of the initial buy-in, unlike other MMOs which have a subscription model. Every now and then I do like to dip into the premium currency of a game to pick up something I like the look of, so for me Fallout 1st is just helping me save money in the long run, with a few more benefits on top.
I know there are a lot of players who feel differently out there, and the heart of the argument that most of this content should be free is totally valid. However, I think that the added value that Bethesda is giving us with the offer of Atoms in Fallout 1st more than outweighs the other content that it comes with.