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Fallout 76 Nuclear Winter beta has been extended

Bethesda's battle royale mode will stay open to existing players after the Fallout 76 free trial week concludes.

The week-long sneak peek at Fallout 76’s battle royale mode, Nuclear Winter, has been extended indefinitely. Bethesda announced that it was keeping the beta open for the foreseeable future in a blog post Friday, thanking players for their enthusiasm for the new mode.

As Eurogamer notes, the updated blog post only says that the mode will remain available after the Fallout 76 free trial week ends, and will continue receiving updates based on players’ feedback.

“We’ve been blown away by the reactions and responses we’ve been seeing all week to Nuclear Winter,” the post reads. “It has been so amazing to read all your experiences and see everything you’ve been sharing. There are so many incredible up-and-coming Overseers! Vault 51 is lucky.”

Nuclear Winter has been a hit since Bethesda unveiled it during its E3 briefing. Former CS:GO pro Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek has said he’s making it his “main game” for the time being, and having prominent streamers on board will no doubt help maintain interest in the new mode.

Here’s the trailer, complete with a cover of “Ring of Fire” – which is arguably a bit on the nose.

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Fallout 76’s free trial is running until June 17, so if you passed on the game when it launched, you’ve still got a couple days to toe the irradiated waters.

Read more: Here are the best battle royale games on PC

Nuclear Winter adds its own Fallout-flavored spins to the battle royale formula, and while battle royale is a bit tired at this point, my own feeling is that it makes more sense in a Fallout game than just about any other property out there. It’ll be interesting to see how it develops.