Installation issues continue to plague the Fallout 76 beta on PC. A bug in October caused users to restart their 50GB download if they clicked anywhere in the installation window. Bethesda stated at the time that they were looking into the issue and extended PC dates in response. Now, players who try the beta and decide against playing the full game are facing the opposite problem.
As seen on Reddit, trying to uninstall through normal methods just brings up an error message on the Bethesda.net launcher stating that the user doesn’t own the game in question. The Fallout 76 beta is exclusive to Bethesda’s launcher on PC. Because of this, all current PC players will have this 50GB program on their hard drives until the game launches on November 14. Bethesda has not commented on the issue as of yet, but they did state that PC users would be able to use their beta installation for the full game come launch day.
To clarify for those asking, you are safe to remove/uninstall B.E.T.A from your Xbox One or PlayStation 4. PC players will receive a small update to their existing B.E.T.A. download to prepare them for November 14.
— Fallout (@Fallout) November 9, 2018
There’s speculation that the reason that players can’t install the Fallout 76 beta is that the game currently locks out users before its release date. Only Bethesda employees and a select few others currently have access to the game right now. It’s possible that the game needs to launch before it uninstalls. Another theory suggests that this is a measure put into place during the beta process. After the first bug, Bethesda wanted to prevent the game from reinstalling itself again and again.
The only official way to get into the Fallout 76 beta was to pre-0rder the game. However, physical pre-order customers did receive codes that they could pass on to friends or other nonpurchasers. It’s unclear as of now when these users will be able to delete the sizable chunk of data. As of today, the only way to remove may be to nuke your hard drive.
