Bethesda has released an FAQ for the upcoming B.E.T.A. event that contains answers players might have before jumping into apparent testing of Fallout 76. Among those answers are file size and information about Atoms, the paid currency.
Fallout 76 beta build's size will be 45 GB, which is kind of hefty but is pretty much the standard for AAA games today. It is not that scary with the current standards in technology, and even less so when you consider that Red Dead Redemption 2 will require a whopping 105 GB of free space.
The actually scary part are Atoms, which will be another currency in Fallout 76, besides bottle caps. Atoms will be acquired via gameplay, but due to lack of viable information, there is no way to figure out how much grinding will be needed to accrue enough Atoms in order to make purchases from the game's shop.
As we expected, Fallout 76 will have an in-game shop that will sell skins, haircuts, outfits and other cosmetic items. Sure, games have currencies that are used to progress so all is fine on that front, until you realise that Atoms with real life money.
Technically, players will be able to purchase anything they like without spending real life money, but the trope of "investing time vs. investing money" is ominously looming over Fallout 76 at this moment. While cosmetics don't mean pay to win, similar that investing time will be balanced with the weight of players' wallets has been an issue before.
Selling cosmetics for real life money is not a bad thing either as it is the most ethically correct way to implement microtransactions these days, but everyone suspected from day one that Fallout 76 was crafted with the business model in mind, rather than creating an engaging game.
Atoms finally confirmed it, but it remains to be seen how much of Fallout 76 will be actually well crafted, new content or whether it will just be a multiplayer version of Fallout 4 with microtransactions.
Bethesda
Some signs have been troubling since the game's announcement though. For example, the complete lack of NPCs to interact with deleted an entire RPG layer in a game that comes from a franchise where fans thoroughly enjoyed immersing themselves in the virtual world. Atoms will go live once the game fully launches on 14 November 2018.
