Bethesda can’t be overjoyed with the launch of Fallout 76. PR blunders include inferior products, ridiculous glitches, low viewership, and potential criminal investigations. The company has tried to right some of their wrongs, but now they may be committing a devastating misstep. It appears that the title’s microtransactions are verging towards pay-to-win territory.

GameRant reported that Reddit users dug deep into Fallout 76’s .esm files. The datamining expedition located Lunchboxes, which were microtransactions back in Fallout Shelter. Some of the files include character boosts like “DMGBonus” and “RadResistBonus”. Others include references to XP boosts and increased carrying capacity. In short, those are the sort of pay-to-win perks that drive many players to shut off games for good.

Bethesda previously claimed that the game’s microtransactions would not transform Fallout 76 into a pay-to-win title. With the new information in the game’s code, that appears to be false. It’s like they learned nothing from the Star Wars Battlefront II catastrophe. The majority of players hate these sorts of boosts. These cards can make the balance of a game shift from legitimately good players to those with the biggest bank accounts. If Bethesda is attempting to drive players away, they may be succeeding. If not, they seem to have no memory of the player boycotts and international lawsuits facing other pay-to-win titles.

There is a second, more troubling possibility: perhaps they did learn from Battlefront II and are doing something so unethical that it would make EA blush.

By waiting until players have purchased and played the game before introducing microtransactions, refunds will be harder to come by. Bethesda won’t have to pay angry players back while making huge gains off of pay-to-win players. If the files are accurate and Bethesda follows through with this maneuver, it’s one of the least player-friendly moves in the history of gaming.

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