‘Fallout 76’ Beta Extended in Wake of Launcher Bug

By Brian Crecente

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The Tuesday night beta session for “Fallout 76” didn’t go exactly as planned thanks to a bug in the BethesdaNet launcher, but developer Bethesda Games plans to make good on the issue by extending the next beta session by four hours.

The bug earlier this week caused some players to redownload the nearly 48GB beta code for the game, making it impossible for some to get the game installed before the beta ended for the night.

Tuesday’s beta was set to run from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET. The next session, which hits on Nov. 1, was scheduled to run from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET initially, but now will run from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m.

“We know some users have been forced to redownload the #Fallout76 B.E.T.A. and not everyone will be able to enjoy the game tonight,” Bethesda posted on Twitter. “To make good, we’ll be extending the B.E.T.A. for everyone on Thursday, November 1, 2pm to 11pm ET. Thanks for your patience. #ExtendtheBeta”

When the issue first hit, Bethesda warned beta players not to click any buttons on the launcher. It seems doing so or rebooting the launcher may have lead to game files being deleted.

“ 76” is due out on the PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One on Nov. 14. You can read about our time in an early build of the game  right here  and see what the developers had to say about the inclusion of nukes and how they handle player griefing.