The PR trainwreck known as Fallout 76 may be pulling out of the station on another gaffe-filled trip. The publisher has decided to offer players Fallout 1st, a subscription service with some nice quality of life enhancements, some atoms, some emotes, and the biggest draw – private worlds. Private Worlds gives you and up to seven friends your own version of the game, or you can take on West Virginia alone. (I’ve lived there. Bring some friends if you want to survive.) Only one person in that party of eight has to be a Fallout 1st subscriber. If they leave, someone else in the party must also be a subscriber, or everyone else is booted from the private world. The rules of the private world match Adventure Mode or Public World, and there is no mod support. It’s almost an offline mode for an online game.
That’s the most exciting thing, but there are two other items that will make your game more convenient. The Scrapbox puts all your crafting supplies in a separate container. Like Mary Poppins’ bag, it has infinite storage, so you can free up space in your Stash Box. The Survival Tent is your home away from C.A.M.P. It will house a stash box, sleeping bag, instrument, and cooking station that can be deployed anywhere. It’s another fast travel point on the map too. Either item can be used in public or private games.
Value is in the eye of the beholder, but my vision is a little blurry for the rest of the membership perks. For when you want to feel fancy combing the wasteland, you can don the Ranger Armor Outfit. You can also show other players your unique emotes and icons. You’ll also receive 1,650 atoms every month and special sales at the Atomic Shop to rid yourself of any excess atoms.
Fallout 1st memberships are available now. If you’re reaching for your wallet, it will run you $12.99 per month or $99.99 per year. I can see paying something for a private world to keep out the destructive riffraff, but with all the problems Fallout 76 has had and company goodwill going down the drain, this seems like a reach. Then again, this is also the company that created the pricey (at the time) horse armor DLC.
Does this mean more subscriptions are coming for other games? Are we witnessing the next big trend that will take off in the PS5 era? I guess it depends on whether it sells.
