Fallout 76 is out, and has been for a while, and a lot of people are pretty annoyed with how it turned out. Some people are even smashing up retail stores over not being able to get refunds for this game, it’s that bad.
But wait, things just got even worse.
Earlier today, another firestorm began to brew surrounding Fallout 76, this time over the $199 Power Armor Edition. Earlier this month, the game company revealed a $199 “Power Armor Edition” which seems to have angered some people, because you see, Bethesda may have committed a bit of false advertising. The original Power Amor Edition was supposed to come with various things like a full-size helmet, figurines, a map and most importantly, a neat branded bag.
What was originally billed as a high-quality canvas bag, actually turned out to be a cheaper imitation made of nylon. People quickly dug into the promo materials and confirmed the change, which Bethesda quickly tried to edit out of existence.
Over on Imgur, one user posted the original promotional material for the Power Armor Edition and the response they received from Bethesda’s customer service team after putting in a complaint for the nylon bag. In response to the complaint the Bethesda support representative explained that the bags were switched from canvas to nylon during production “due to unavailability of materials”. This likely means that canvas was viewed as too expensive, and so a cheaper material was used.
Fans weren’t happy that they had essentially been the victim of the ‘ole switcheroo, and took to the interwebs to complain. Fans all over Reddit, Twitter and other sites who had purchased the bundle expecting quality contents, especially considering the high-end price, were a bit irritated.
Bethesda took to social media to try and assuage fan concerns, saying the following:
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.
And in case you’re wondering, that 500 Atoms is worth a total of $4.99 when purchased regularly. Also, there’s not a whole lot you can actually purchase in-game for purely that amount. A handful of hideout decorations is about all that exists in that price range currently. Needless to say, but this whole thing hasn’t gone over well. There’s lots of spicy memes, plenty of angry comments, and a lot of WTF directed at Bethesda in response to this.
So let’s get this straight Bethesda, you were too cheap to pony up the dough on a $200 bundle for the sake of your most hardcore fans, and some of them are pretty disappointed. So what do you do? You offer them $5 in compensation against this expensive purchase.
Are you really dense enough to think that we don’t see what you’re doing? It’s pretty clear that the company wanted to scrape by and protect their profit margins when dealing with the blowback from this, so the company offers the bare minimum amount of effort as a replacement for a refund. The message being sent here is that the profit margins that Bethesda is willing to accept on the Collector’s Editions is so razor thin, that they won’t bother offering more than $5, which I’m willing to bet is only slightly more than the money the company saved by opting for nylon over canvas for these bags in the first place.
Seriously Bethesda, do you think we’re this dumb to just roll over and accept this kind of weak response? I’m genuinely glad I didn’t buy this game now, and I’m now starting to wonder how you’ll handle future releases if this is how you handle outrage from Fallout 76.
If you’re one of those people looking for help with this, head over to Bethesda’s site and file a support ticket. And if you’d like to rage at Bethesda for being cheap, feel free to let us know about that in the comments. Also, if you happen to be lucky enough to have bought the game at retailer with a decent return policy, you might still have time to return the game if you want, those who are disappointed might want to look into that.
