New details regarding Fallout 76's upcoming beta have been shared by Bethesda Monday morning. The upcoming online multiplayer game is scheduled to release November 14, so players have been anxiously awaiting news regarding Bethesda's testing plans. According to Bethesda, players will have to wait a bit longer, as Fallout 76's beta won't be starting until October at the earliest. The official beta will begin small and slowly include more and more players, growing into Fallout 76's release.

Bethesda community administrator Jurassica posted the new information in Fallout 76's official forums and plans to answer community questions as they're able. So far Jurassica has reconfirmed that Fallout 76's beta will be exclusive to players who have pre-

ordered from partnered retailers and that any who pre-order will be included in the beta. However, it seems like not all players will be invited at the same time and some may end up with a much shorter beta experience than others.

Further official information regarding the beta will likely have to wait until QuakeCon, however. The Fallout 76 panel during QuakeCon 2018 will be on August 11 and Todd Howard and other Bethesda employees will answer questions from the audience and community. Hopefully a finalized start date beyond just the month of October will be available.

fallout 76 beta info quakecon

One thing that Jurassica didn't mention was the previously reported exclusive beta for Xbox One, which was detailed in Fallout 76's FAQ. The beta will still come to both PC and PS4 as well, but only after it begins on Xbox One. It's unclear whether the beta that Jurassica says will begin in October is the Xbox One exclusive beta or the multi-platform beta, but the former seems more likely.

The more pressing question raised by today's newly announced release month is whether an October beta will provide Bethesda enough time for testing prior to launch in November. Online multiplayer betas can often last for months as developers iterate on core multiplayer functionality and test servers. An October beta means Fallout 76 will likely be in a complete state, barring any hefty day-one patch plans. The implication being that the beta test will end up being more of a stress test. Though perhaps Bethesda's been running a closed alpha behind the scenes to handle the traditional duties of a beta.

With Fallout 76's launch quickly approaching, more information on its beta is likely to be forthcoming. Stay tuned for more information in the weeks to come, particularly during QuakeCon starting August 10.

Fallout 76 releases November 14 the for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.