Fallout 76 has launched a new premium membership service called Fallout 1st, Bethesda has announced. The service is available to purchase now and includes access to private worlds for you and your friends, exclusive items, and membership bonuses.

Private worlds has been one of the most requested features since Fallout 76 was released back in November 2018. Last week Bethesda revealed that private servers would be coming to the game this week, but there was no indication that the feature would be locked behind a subscription paywall. You can purchase a Fallout 1st subscription for $12.99 / £11.99 a month, or buy a full year at a 36% discount for $99.99 / £99.99. It's a steep price to pay in order to play Fallout 76 privately, either alone or with friends. For comparison, an Xbox Game Pass subscription costs $9.99 / £10.99 a month, and features both Fallout New Vegas and The Outer Worlds, among a myriad of other games. At least only the owner of a private server is required to be a Fallout 1st member. Bethesda has also said it's looking into incorporating mod support in private worlds.

Aside from receiving access to private worlds, Fallout 1st members will also receive a monthly bonus of 1,650 atoms to spend in the Atomic Shop. There will also be exclusive discounts on items in the store, and members will gain access to their own private Scrapbox, too, letting you store all of your crafting components in a separate place to the limited Stash Box. Meanwhile, the new survival tent will save you some caps by acting as a fast travel point you can place anywhere on the map, and unique emotes and the Ranger Armor outfit give you some more cosmetic options.

Fallout 76 had a rocky launch and was met with largely negative reviews, including GameSpot's review which awarded it a 4/10. Bethesda has been releasing updates fairly regularly, though, adding features like a battle royale mode and raids.