The last few days have seen Fallout 76 free to play rumors popping up. EB Games in Australia had reportedly pulled the game from store shelves due to a distributor recall and some Amazon sellers were similarly reported to be running low on their stock of the game. However, Bethesda Game Studios has come out and said outright that there is no truth to rumors of the game going free to play in a tweet on its official account:
There is no truth to this rumor.
— Bethesda (@bethesda) January 22, 2019
Aside from this solitary statement, Bethesda has not said anything else regarding these rumors. The rumors about a Fallout 76 free to play switch are certainly understandable. The game dropped out of the UK’s top ten just two weeks after its debut. Further evidence of slow sales arose when it was revealed that Fallout 76 hasn’t performed quite as well as the previous entry in the post-apocalyptic franchise.
There’s one other interesting note to the Fallout 76 free to play rumors: the game price has dropped to $10 on cdkeys.com for the European, Middle Eastern, and African regions. The US version of the game isn’t discounted quite that heavily, but it is nonetheless being sold at below its retail price. The US site for Amazon also lists the game at a pretty solid discount: a new copy will cost you $39.99 and used copies are being sold for as little as $25.99.
We can’t be entirely certain if or when a Fallout 76 free to play edition will launch. Considering the game’s low scores on Metacritic and OpenCritic and the various controversies surrounding its premium editions, it’s pretty safe to say that fans aren’t all that happy with the latest foray into the retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic world. Bethesda may very well be able to turn things around, but more and more hints are popping up every day that lend credence to the rumors of the game eventually going to free to play.
