Image: Bethesda Softworks via AFP Relaxnews
The “Fallout” franchise publisher has announced an Aug. 11 live Q&A plus a staggered October start date for its Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC beta testing program in advance of online multiplayer survival game “Fallout 76” launching in November 2018.
Two upcoming events suggest themselves to those interested in Bethesda’s atypical multiplayer twist on its post-apocalyptic role-playing franchise “Fallout”.
Announced in May and further detailed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June, “Fallout 76” offers a co-operative, multiplayer spin on the free roaming, base building, solo survival aspects of 2015 predecessor “Fallout 4”.
Bethesda, its parent company ZeniMax, and a selection of sibling studios host a Quakecon fan convention each year, and this year’s edition of the Dallas, Texas meetup will feature an Aug. 11 look at some of the character systems underpinning “Fallout 76”.
In continuation of a prior marketing agreement with Microsoft Xbox, the panel is to be livestreamed through Microsoft’s Mixer platform (mixer.com/bethesda) as well as Amazon’s Twitch (twitch.tv/bethesda).
As well as an opportunity to have specific questions answered by the Bethesda Game Studios team, it’s an opportunity to encourage fans to order the game before its release, a goal that the “Fallout 76” beta ties into as well.
“Everyone who pre-orders at a participating pre-order will be included” in an October pre-release online testing program, a Bethesda community admin announced in July 23, and pre-ordering is the only way to get access to the Break it Early Test Application, per official blurb, with Xbox One access to begin first, in support of a prior marketing agreement, followed by PlayStation 4 and Windows PC.
The list of participating retailers on Bethesda’s pre-order portal includes Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop and Walmart in the United States (Xbox One and PC editions only at Walmart), Amazon in Canada and Germany (without the PC version in Germany), Game Mania in the Netherlands, GameStop in Italy, Amazon and Fnac in France, and GAME in the United Kingdom.
That said, there’s no apparent ban preventing beta test members from livestreaming their game sessions, so curious minds will presumably be able to find footage of a pre-release “Fallout 76” once October’s early access rolls around. JB
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