Fallout 76, Bethesda's first online multiplayer Fallout game will release next month, but some will be able to try it out far sooner. Fallout 76's stress test will begin this weekend for select players who have pre-ordered the game.

Bethesda has officially revealed that only Xbox One players in North America who have pre-ordered the game will have a chance to access the Fallout 76 stress test. This is a different test than the Fallout 76 B.E.T.A., as the stress test utilizes an earlier build of the game, with no ability to save or carry over character progress to the full game. The stress test will start on October 13th, with the exact time of day yet to be announced.

In order to have the chance to participate, gamers must first pre-order Fallout 76 either via the Xbox One store or by pre-ordering a physical copy and linking it to their Xbox One accounts. However, not everyone will be eligible, as the stress test has limited space and accounts that are eligible for the test have been chosen at random.

All players interested in the stress test need to have an active subscription to Xbox Live Gold, and must sign up for the Xbox One Insider program. This program allows players to try out games and features that are still in the early stages, such as the stress test. Players can do this by booting up their Xbox One with the account they pre-ordered with, going to the store, running a search for the Xbox Insider Hub app, and installing it.

Once the Insider app is installed and running, players who pre-ordered digitally should navigate to the Insider Content tab and look for the Fallout 76 Stress Test. If it's listed, the player has been selected for the opportunity to try out the game. If it's not visible, unfortunately, the player's account wasn't randomly selected, and the user won't be able to participate in the stress test.

For those who pre-ordered physical copies, players will need to login to their accounts on Bethesda.net. Gamers who have been granted access to the stress test will have a token in their transaction history that can be entered into the Xbox Store to download the stress test.

Players who aren't selected for the stress test or who pre-ordered the game on different systems will still have the opportunity to join the Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. starting on October 30th. Gamers who are interested in either the stress test or beta should plan on clearing out some hard drive space, as the full Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. file size comes in at a whopping 45GB. Although Bethesda notes that the stress test uses an earlier build of the game than the B.E.T.A., it still contains the full game, so it should have a significantly large file size as well.

Fallout 76 launches on November 14, 2018 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The stress test will begin on October 13th exclusively for Xbox One.

Source: Bethesda