The $300 Power Armour edition of Fallout 76 promised fans a load of stuff, including what looked like a very nice canvas bag. Which they didn’t end up getting, because between announcing the bundle and shipping it Bethesda pulled a lil’ switcheroo.
Update: Bethesda has responded, saying “we are sorry”.
We understand and respect that there is disappointment with the bag in the Power Armor Edition. We are sorry. Please contact Bethesda Support to provide proof of your CE purchase. They will assist in granting your account 500 Atoms.
Please visit: https://t.co/TJBMjYaph0
— Fallout (@Fallout) November 29, 2018
In addition to the Twitter statement and support email, Bethesda has also responded to critics of the move on Reddit, posting:
The Bethesda Store’s Support member is a temporary contract employee and not directly employed by Bethesda or Bethesda Game Studios. We apologise to the customer who took the time to reach out. The support response was incorrect and not in accordance with our conduct policy.
Unfortunately, due to unavailability of materials, we had to switch to a nylon carrying case in the Fallout 76: Power Armour Edition. We hope this doesn’t prevent anyone from enjoying what we feel is one of our best collector’s editions.
Mostly the same as the email reply, then, only now someone’s getting thrown under the bus.
Original story follows: Up top is the military-style canvas bag as it was promised (and as it’s still advertised on sites like Amazon):
And here’s what has been sent out to fans:
Yo @BethesdaStudios @bethesda @BethesdaSupport this isn’t a West Tek canvas bag. This a ghetto ass nylon trash bag @Fallout tf guys pic.twitter.com/mhzvcHqoCX
— Serianni (@serianni13) November 16, 2018
Oh dear.
Cost and production issues happen all the time with collector’s editions, ranging from things breaking to figures not turning out as expected to components straight up disappearing.
What’s causing problems here—and lots of people are very unhappy about this—is probably two things. The first is that this game itself isn’t very good, which would compound a lot of folk’s disappointment.
Second, though, is Bethesda’s response. Fans complaining about the switch are getting responses like this:
So Bethesda knew they were changing the bag, said nothing, offered nothing, released the game, and now that fans are complaining that they aren’t getting what was advertised and what they paid for, are getting an email that literally says “we hope this doesn’t prevent you from enjoying what we feel is one of our best collector’s editions”.
That’s on top of the fact that the Power Armour edition of the game was delayed, to the point where Bethesda had to email out codes for customers so they could get playing the game while they waited for their giant boxes to arrive.
Comments
94 responses to “$300 Fallout 76 Edition Promised Fancy Bag, Delivers Nylon Trash Instead [Update: Bethesda Responds]”
My helmet had a piece broken off, and indeed the “canvas” bag was like something from an Ekka showbag. Incredibly disappointed, I returned mine to EB Games.
But that response is basically an admission of false advertising. Something like that must be communicated to the customer.
Thankfully nobody in Australia should have any issue returning theirs, should they not want to keep it, thanks to our consumer law!
The screencapped email is in response to an Australian though, so I guess they’re hoping the type of person who buys collector’s editions is ignorant of the Australian Consumer Law?
This is the best thing going – so glad that they can be held to account for this – I think you’re right @jamesh – but it speaks more to the whole product rather than just this bag on the shortcuts taken with this.
The game doesn’t do what it said it would either, let’s not forget that. Let’s never forget that.
What did the game it say it would do?
“It just works!”
Did he say that about Fallout 76 (the game) at some point? I know he’s said it about previous games, or about features within games.
per consumer law customer needs to return to point of sale not bethesda
because bethesda issued the digital edition via email I doubt customer would have to return the actual game, glhf
Considering how daft you’d have to be to part with $300 for that crap (even if the bag was canvas), it’s probably a fair assumption.
Yes, but how else do you see them responding…..
Scenario 1: Full refunds for everyone who ordered collectors editions…. Our sun will collapse into a black hole first
Scenario 2: Lets make it good, lets give them X, Y & Z etc etc
Scenario 3: Tell everyone not our problem and hope that people are ignorant and lazy enough to do nothing other than remain bent over… Unles they know their rights and complain and fight enough to get it fixed…. Seems like number 3 is the mostly likely to me.
Seems appropriate given the quality of the game itself.
Why’s anyone surprised. The Pip Boy from 4 looked pretty great too, until unboxing videos revealed it was just cheap, shiny, mustard yellow plastic.
I’m actually much happier with the quality of the Pip Boy than the helmet, wore it while playing no problem and have it on its stand in a display cabinet.
The F4 Pipboy was disappointing for sure, but the T-51b helmet’s a fair bit better than that at least. Side note, I grabbed the Pipboy 2000 Mk6 kit and while a lot of it is still plastic, it’s much better quality than the F4 one and definitely worth the buy for collectors.
Completely agree with the 2000 kit. Although my hands are still sore from putting the thing together. May RobCo burn in hell
The Fallout 76 shitshow continues
Pathetic management of a once great IP, they can’t even be bothered to put in effort to milk this franchise anymore.
It’s pretty depressing. I still play Fallout 2 once a year or so but the newer games just don’t do it for me. Not saying they’re all crap but they aren’t what they used to be. I’m sure some of that is the ‘old timey’ nostalgia driven bias talking but 76 shouldn’t have been released in the state it was and it could have been a lot better handled.
I think that’s a perfectly reasonable view to have. I love every Fallout game personally, but it’d be blind to suggest there wasn’t a major change in style between Fallout 2 (or I suppose Fallout Tactics technically) and Fallout 3.
I’m sure you know this already, but if you prefer the isometric style Fallout games then Wasteland 2 is an excellent spiritual successor to Fallout 1, which itself was a spiritual successor to the original Wasteland.
Also this might seem like a weird recommendation, but there was a post-apocalyptic TV series that tugged a little on some elements of the Fallout vibe (not the retro-future part) for me called Jeremiah (not to be confused with Jericho). It’s actually really good and worth a watch if you can find it, which is the hard part.
Jericho was actually pretty good as well.
And to think if Du Pont hadn’t patented Nylon in the 30’s, the bag would have been made of hemp!
Literally YEARS of Bethesda goodwill pissed away on one buggy, MTX-focused cashgrab of a game.
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing before this, remember they shipped the PS3 version of Skyrim knowing it was broken and not completely sure how to fix it.
When the PS4 versions began to slow and lag they decided instead to blame the PS3’s hardware for the issue.
Yeah but somehow they still got a free pass on that one. But something’s turned and people are complaining. And yet still they seem intent on pissing off their most loyal customers. If someone’s willing to pay $300 for your game and a bunch of merch, you damn well want to make sure they’re happy about it, they’re a lifetime customer!
What the heck is going on at Bethesda???
It dawned upon me last night that they should never have gotten a free-pass for any of it, and it started happening (as far as I can tell) around the time Oblivion was released, and it occurred to me it was their janky-ass engine that is the cause of all this mess… I wasn’t familiar with Morrowind, but Oblivion on the PS3 was an abortion.
Right around that time it was released and I remember reading in Hyper and seeing the beauty of the (still) pictures and I can remember it getting either 96/100 or 10/10 (wasn’t sure if they’d moved to the simplified system by that point)… Funnily enough, seeing it running it was never that pretty, it was just in the uncanny valley all the way through, and to this day, it always just looks a little… ‘off’…
It was apparently then best thing since sliced bread, but it’s always been just so janky-assed due to the Gambryo, now Creation engine not being able to open a god-damn door without a loading screen… This is it, this is what is holding them back as a games designer.
I think Bethesda has lost the plot and gotten high on their own supply, thinking they could just keep flogging this dead horse over and over and over again. It comes down to how delusional Todd Howard is and how many times the guy just lies and lies about everything. He’s pathological about it too, I’m sure he doesn’t even think what he’s doing is wrong.
You can’t polish a turd, but you can put a horse out to pasture or take it to the glue factory and that’s what they need to do with this engine and Fallout 76 – people need to refund the game where they can.
I think you’re right. Whilst I admire their world building, I mean, the amount of novella’s sprinkled through all of their open world games IS astounding, releasing broken games is inexcusable. Especially on console when their’s almost nothing the user can do to fix the issue.
I don’t see how. It’s not a main entry, just a side project, unless it’s a main entry why should I care? Sure it hasn’t lived up to the hype at all, and has heaps of problems, but they were always very honest from the beginning about what the game itself was going to be.
-side project
-“by far their biggest project to date”
-“biggest team ever on a Bethesda project”
The Todd talked this up to be something far grander.
It’s not MTX-focused, man. There are plenty of legit complaints that can be made about the game without dipping into invented stuff like that.
I wonder how many Woolies shopping trips its rated for…
None – unless you shop very light. From what I read it started to tear at the seams with anything heavier than the helmet.
Who goes to Woolies anymore, they dont have Coles Minis
my helmet arrived poorly painted with a sticky stain on the back (read into that what you will).
The low quality canvas bag just ads insult to injury, deffinately not worth the $300 charged.
Did you end up keeping yours?
Posted this on the Bethesda forum.
Just got a “resolution” to my issue my helmet was damaged and I also complained about the bag, there response was we are sending you another helmet in 4-6 weeks keep the old one… Keep the old one this might have a lot to do with living in Australia and if it has to ship internationally the cost is more than its worth.
The reasoning for the bag, unavailability of materials you had four months minimum from announcement (June 10th) to putting the edition together and shipping world wide (that’s being generous) so that stocks would be at the required locations.
Are they expecting people to believe that in four months (minimum) they couldn’t find a Chinese manufacturer to make canvas bags, in reality they would have had more like six months given the Power Armor Edition would of been conceptualized long before announcement.
Given there willingness to replace the helmet and not require the old one back we can either come to one of two conclusions
1) The helmet cost less to make than the cost to ship it.
Or
2) The helmet cost less to make than the cost to ship it.
Another person posted on Twitter a response from Bethesda that the bag was to expensive to make so the switched it to nylon to save money, if that’s the case (which makes more sense than unavailability of materials) how much did they actually make given that the helmet cost less than shipping and seems to be the most expensive thing in the box.
With all this in mind, material more than likely being available within the six month time frame from concept to minimum ship date and the real wholesale cost of all the items in the Power armor edition (helmet costing less than shipping) they didn’t want to spend the extra $15 retail cost (wholesale cost much much lower) to make the canvas bag as advertised
3) They have zero infrastructure for “repairing” helmets and therefore, receiving a damaged one back would be completely pointless.
Bethesda make games, you see. So in order for your helmet to be “fixed”. It would likely be the cost of shipping it from you to them, then them to the (likely chinese) company. Then probably the chinese company back to them. Then you.
Not saying it isn’t a cheap piece of rubbish – just saying, your conclusion is odd. It could be that they simply want to keep the good will with you.
..Not sure about those speech marks. Just imagine Dr Evil said it.
You clearly do not work in any logistics. There are many reasons not to bother getting the defective product back (plenty in stock, cost of shipping it around to get fixed, cost of fixing it, good will).
I look very dimly on that collectors edition but I wouldn’t go as far as to draw the conclusions you have based on the stimulus.
I worked logistics and warehousing for two years at the Good Guys. I often had to put pallets together to send back defective and damaged stock.
The norm at the Good Guys was if the item cost less than the cost to repair you would just replace ( really says slot about our throw away society) it but you would always get the old one back so you could get reimbursed by the manufacturer.
The point I was trying to make was that they were to cheap to make the canvas bag but are willing to send a replacement helmet.
I wasn’t expecting to even get the replacement helmet or even a repair a store credit maybe, if you think about it though if they can send a replacement helmet than they can’t really cost that much to make in the first place, if it cost more to make than shipping it than I’m sure they would have offered a store credit, but a mass produced helmet like this probably only cost $10
The cost to make them is already sunk. They don’t somehow get money be getting a broken one back or not sending another one. They have already paid for it to be produced and the whole cost of spares to account for broken ones was factored in and budgeted for somewhere.
If the helmet cost enough that a repair would be worth it I’m sure they would but if the cost to ship it back and forth is more than the cost to make it it make no sense to repair it.
They said 6 weeks to get the new one I don’t think that it takes 6 weeks to ship an already made one, I think that there are a lot of damaged ones and they need to get the numbers together so they know how many to replace before putting in another order.
In a similar vein, minor car accidents are often enough to get the car written off these days. The cost of fixing a fender bender has gotten so high, relative to the value gained, that its often easier to just scrap it and give a new car. Mostly because of the resale value of the parts.
Theres a hell of a lot of cost benefit analysis done these days, and most of the time it just isn’t worth it to repair something. Minor issues might end up at DFO’s but anything noticeable isn’t worth it.
Write it off, just replace it, send it to the tip, etc etc all end up being more cost effective than repair. That’s why most things aren’t usually repaired these days, but replaced.
Which as you say, says a lot about our disposable society.
Things just don’t last as long either, people would buy a new fridge or washer to replace/uograde one that they have had for 20 years or 30 years and the new one even if you look after it will fail in about 10 years.
It’s actually more sinister than you’d think company’s don’t build things to last because it’s not profitable to make something that won’t need to be replaced.
The only time I’ve seen anyone bunk that trend is in the building industry some power tool makers still make high quality gear that will last a lifetime if you look after it but you are paying top dollar.
The helmet is crafted by a prominent collectibles company, and is the centrepiece of the edition, but most of the price is to commission, tooling and prototyping. The manufacturing gets cheaper the more they produce… and like the Pipboy from F4 easy sell.
I think the catch here is Berhesda ordered more helmets than they sold… cause they can sell the leftover stock easy. Also its fair to assume breakage and replacement of a collectible is a reasonable expense projection.
The rest of the stuff was stocking filler and licensed to god knows who with very little leadtime. Cant replace a bag with something that doesnt exist… there never was a canvas bag produced… that was a marketing prototype.
Just messed up their compensation is $5 in microtransactions.
The helmet wasn’t made by a prominent collectables company, it might of been designed but end product is low quality mass produced pieces of plastic poorly glued together, it even states on a sticker inside that it’s not wearable.
Also very little leadtime, are you serious, do you think that 4 months minimum ( from when they announced the power armor edition to minimum ship date) is not sufficient time to find a manufacturer to make canvas bags.
In reality the power armor edition would of been conceptualized long before announcement, there purchasing officer or whatever they are called got a price for the canvas bags thought it was to much and cheaped out.
There was at least one prototype made for promotional purposes, they obviously decided that it cost to much to mass produce and that it would hurt there profit margin so they changed it without telling anyone, a classic bait and switch.
Indeed. Add to this, most of these bags and such aren’t hand stitched. They’re machine made from a template, they’d be made much the same way a lot of bags and such are.
I got stung by this as well. I don’t WANT a refund. I just want the product I bloody well paid for!
Any lawyers looking to do a class action? I’ll be in this. This is absolutely disgraceful!
The ACCC website’s got all the info you need.
You’re entitled to a full refund but that’s basically it unfortunately.
I myself have been wondering about a class action suit. Not only did they shaft us on the shitty bag, but the advertised “voice modulator” turned out to be a lame echo effect.
Very angry about the whole thing, very angry indeed.
Just one question guys. As many of you got this collector’s edition.
Why?
Why buy the expensive version of a game that comes with crap? Even if you got the quality your were promised, it would still be crap. I really don’t understand. I don’t mean to insult anyone. But why pay more than three times the price of the game, which you don’t even know if it’s gonna be good, when you pre-order the collectors editon.
In addition, why even pre-order? I’m seriously confused guys. What benefit do you get?
Companies aren’t our friends, we don’t owe them anything.
For me personally it’s something I can display along with other gaming statues, I also have some sci-fi stuff to like a model solar system, and I even have a couple of gaming/sci-fi tattoos, it’s just one of my hobbies, something I can appreciate.
It’s like people who collect stamps or trading cards they may not have any value to you or me but they have value to the person buying and sometimes if it’s unique or rare it’s value is greater.
I look at an abstract painting and I can’t believe it can be worth millions just because a famous person painted it, to my it’s just paint on canvas, but it has value because for whatever reason I don’t understand people value these things so highly that the price just keeps climbing.
So while I am willing to buy a collectors edition for a game I like and people don’t understand it, I don’t understand why people pay millions for a painting… Well I mean I do understand it’s because it’s something they like, I just wouldn’t do it.
I’m a collector when it comes to stuff I have a deep passion for, whether it’s games or films or otherwise. I bought the power armour edition because the headpiece looks great on display, particularly alongside the new Pipboy assembly kit result. ‘Crap’ is a subjective assessment, what’s crap for you isn’t necessarily crap for me, and vice versa.
As for preordering in general, the backlash against it is somewhat crude and blunt. There’s nothing wrong with preordering if you do it properly, it only becomes a problem if you don’t put thought into it. If you understand the developer, look at their track record and compare against what you know you’ll like or dislike, you’ll almost never make a preorder you later regret. Instead, in exchange for communicating to them that there’s a guaranteed sale (the developer/publisher does not get preorder money from retailers or Steam, only from their own stores), they offer a small additional reward. If you’re confident in the game and are going to buy it anyway, you only stand to benefit from doing the ‘buying’ part before it comes out.
In nearly 20 years of buying my own games and preordering semi-frequently, I’ve only regretted a single purchase – Aliens: Colonial Marines – and it was because I didn’t follow those same rules I mentioned above. I liked Gearbox for Borderlands, but I didn’t give enough weight to how poorly Duke Nukem ended up happening, and that same poor work came through in ACM too.
That was my own poor decision in that instance, but everything else I’ve preordered I’ve been happy with.
I knew the game was going to be a mess but I pre-ordered anyway it will probably get better, I’ve been telling anyone who asks what it’s like wait six months and it will be better.
Did you assemble the pipboy? I’m looking at getting one.
For the kit one, yes. A lot of it is plastic still, some 3D printed metal, but it looks a lot better and it’s designed so you can mod working components in if you want. I’m happy to just have it sit on the old Pipboy 3000 stand though.
It’s ok! They’re giving out fake money now!
How are Bethesda this bad at PR?
Enough for a basic hair-style! And you can’t transfer the currency to any of their other games!
… Yeesh.
Yeeeep. 500 atoms.
Worth all of $5, but actual cost to Bethesda: $0.
This whole release has been a mess.
I’m beyond just disappointed…I’m now angry.
Funniest part though someone pointed out that it costs 700 atoms for the postman outfit that comes with a canvas bag.
“Hey guys, I know you are pissed off that you spent $300 on something that cost us $20 to make, So here’s $5 on us!” Bethesda PR, A subsidiary of EA PR
“Collectors edition” Ha!
Took a page out of AtGames book, releasing a flawed/inferior product without updating any information or addressing it until the complaints from consumers came in.
This is my first time seeing pictures.
I didn’t get what the fuss was until I saw those pictures. I’d be furious.
This is the only part of it that I’m actually disappointed with. I didn’t actually care about the bag to begin with, but Bethesda’s response about materials being unavailable is a cop out. It’s canvas, there’s never been a shortage of canvas in the history of ever. The game’s problems are understandable, but this one isn’t.
The pictures of the canvas bag look really nice, too.
I’m curious to see how the ACCC deals with this.
Exactly there bullshit is ridiculous, do they think people believe that there was a great canvas shortage or that they bait and switched to save money.
“The support response was incorrect and not in accordance with our conduct policy”
You mean to tell the truth right it’s against conduct policy to tell the truth.
Of course there is a shortage. Bethesda clearly thinks they need ballistic fibre to construct these bags. That stuff is rare!
I already have a ton of it so I will let you know the asylum in the bottom right hand corner of the map (Fort Defiance) is a great place to get military ammo bags they breakdown into 2 ballistic fiber I would usually get around 10-11 bags.
And the Bethesda shit show continues.
This game is a joke.
I purchased the stock standard edition the other week. Haven’t opened it, think I am going to return it. So disappointed too
Why is no-one talking about the cardboard disc that came with this CE on kotaku? I’ve seen it everywhere but here.
Probably because it’s not that unusual any more. AC Origins and Halo 5 also did it with their special editions off the top of my head and there have been others. To play devil’s advocate, what would be the point of distributing a disc the user assumes they can install the game off when it’s immediately followed by a huge post-launch patch the user has to install regardless because it’s an online game? Might as well just download the patched version directly instead.
I bought the Halo 5 collectors edition and when I picked it up the guy at EB actually gave me a physical copy aswell.
Was that standard procedure everywhere, or just where you got it? I’ve heard a lot of stories about it only having a code and no physical game.
Not sure but I ended up with both, I think EB did it everywhere because the collectors edition was already expensive
Jesus, this whole 76 circus is putting a nasty dent in Bethesda’s image.
I never thought Bethesda had a good image anyway. Have they ever released a complete game? Have they ever released a good looking game? sadly it’s a no and I don’t trust any of their products.
Short memory? Oblivion looked amazing when it released, pretty much all the reviews called it out specifically for that. Their more recent stuff may not be cutting edge, but I don’t think saying none of their games look good is being honest.
Wow not the first time they’ve screwed around, hell just locking Skyrim into their online mods accounts was bad enough they seem to be getting worse as time goes on, just like most gaming related companies (Blizzard being the most recent) that just take money and release games that still require work to complete or have no useful information for new releases that they are pre-selling.
So, why haven’t we been hearing more about this worldwide cotton shortage? If it’s impossible to source canvas anywhere, then that’s a huge deal to the world economy.
Maybe they are telling the truth about a shortage of canvas because China is stockpiling it to make uniforms for when they try to take over the world.
Just another reason NOT to pre-order games. When will people learn this developer behaviour is mostly ubiquitous now days…
*Repeats the same support response*
While I didn’t particularly care about the bag I’ll take the 500 atoms if I can get them 😀
Wow. Isn’t 500 atoms about $5 worth? That seems like a pathetic apology. I mean, better than nothing. But are they really saying that the canvas bag was only worth $5?
The atoms really don’t even cost them anything, but yeah the bags probably would have been around $5 tto make wholesale pricing.
What it would of been worth though comparing similar non branded bags sit at around $16
Its like you going to McDonalds. Getting a meal and finding your BigMac tastes crap and they offer you 10 cents compensation. Its beyond a joke.
Wasn’t this also the version that literally says “THIS DOESN’T COME WITH THE GAME” like 3 times in the amazon product?
I think that was the Red Dead 2 collector’s edition. I remember people kicking up a stink about the FO76 power armor edition being delayed (because of the collectibles) meaning that the people who’d dropped $200+US on it being unable to play the game until it arrived.
https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76-platinum-edition-costs-dollar115-doesnt-include-fallout-76/
Wow. Thanks for the link. 🙂 Must’ve been thinking of the tricentennial edition or something different.
Well this is a different version. But let’s be honest. A company that sells an edition that doesn’t actually have the game isn’t thinking clearly.
They should have listened to you, Luke.
https://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/06/stop-preordering-video-games/amp
Hey idiots, it was $200 not $300. Stop crying over shit you people obviously didn’t actually pay any attention to what the price was. You all complain about this game and all its bugs and shit. Yet rdr2 is just as buggy, yet no one complains about that game.. I wonder why?
It was priced at $299.95 in Australia. We’re an Australian site.
R.I.P Bethesda.
Preordered in June, 5 months later, got the Package. Didn’t realised until now about the bait and switch. $299.99 for a nylon instead of a Canvas Duffel bag, which was advertised in store. Breaking down the price.
Game: $99.00
Helmet: $100-$150 maybe.
Duffel bag: $40
Figurines: $10-$15
Map: $5
Not happy.
Shitty game, no story, glitches, boring, freezes. Kicks me out. Camp placement crap.