There are many gamers who are understandably opposed to the idea of microtransactions. The idea is that if you were to pay for a game, you should get access to the game in its entirety and not have certain content locked behind a paywall. Unfortunately for gamers, microtransactions is an extremely lucrative model so don’t expect to see it go away anytime soon.However the good news for gamers looking to play Fallout 76 is that while the game will have microtransactions, Bethesda wants to reassure gamers that it won’t be a pay-to-win scenario. The in-game currency comes in the form of Atoms which can be used to purchase cosmetics. These can be bought using real-life money, but Bethesda’s Pete Hines has reiterated that they’ll be giving plenty of Atoms away in the game in the form of rewards for completing tasks and objectives, meaning that players can grind for Atoms if they don’t want to spend real-life money.
According to Hines, “If you don’t want to spend money in the Atomic shop for cosmetic stuff you don’t have to. We give you a sh*tload of Atoms just for playing the game. Folks that want to spend money on whatever the hell it is because they don’t have enough Atoms, they can, but it’s not, ‘I’m now better playing against other players because I spent money.’ It’s not pay-to-win. And it’s not loot crates.”
Bethesda had also previously stated that “perks” (a feature of the game) cannot be bought using real-life money, meaning that your real-life money is pretty much spent purchasing the game itself, and Atoms for those who don’t want to grind them out.