Fallout 76 PC version hacking concerns acknowledged by Bethesda, pledges to fix issues

It's the latest in a long line of complaints about Fallout 76's jankiness, but following a Reddit post claiming the beta can be hacked on PC, Bethesda has now admitted some of the accusations are valid and require fixes to prevent cheating.

The trouble began when Reddit user teetharejustdone posted an extensive list of potential issues with Fallout 76 on the Fallout 76 subreddit. Claims ranged from a lack of server checks to verify models and file integrity, to unencrypted client to client communication (allowing players to view other user's in-game stats and even their IP addresses). And indeed, following the recent discovery Fallout 76 can be modded on the player-side, creations have appeared on Nexus Mods which give players an unfair advantage.

In a statement to Eurogamer, Bethesda confirmed some (but not all) of these concerns are correct.

"Many of the claims in the thread are either inaccurate or based on incorrect assumptions. The community has however called to attention several issues that our teams are already actively tracking and planning to roll out fixes for," a Bethesda spokesperson told us via email.

"Our goal is always to deliver a great experience for all our players. Cheating or hacking will not be tolerated. We know our fan base is passionate about modding and customising their experience in our worlds and it's something we intend to support down the road."

Eurogamer also asked Bethesda for clarification on which claims are inaccurate, but it seems this statement is all we have to go on for now.

While it's difficult to say for sure which of the claims are valid, we do know that Fallout 76's similarity with Fallout 4 is causing a range of unforeseen problems on PC. Modder Neeher previously informed me they'd been able to alter the files easily because "the core of Fallout 76 is basically identical to Fallout 4". The earliest mods have even been created using tools from the Fallout 4 creation kit - talk about making a nuclear fuel rod for your own back.

Before the modding news, players also worked out that, like Fallout 4, Fallout 76's framerate and game speed are tied. In a single-player game this isn't an issue, but in a multiplayer format this can give players the ability to essentially "speed hack" by unlocking their framerate - something which is relatively easy to do on PC.

Oh - and there was that paltry thing about the PC version bug which could delete 50GB worth of game data. Possibly a blessing in disguise.

With only a few beta sessions left until Fallout 76's full release on 14th November, Bethesda has a pretty tight window to make sure all of these problems are fixed. The beta has previously been extended to accommodate the self-deletion bug - will the discovery of these new issues lead to further schedule changes?