Earlier this year Bethesda announced a special version of Fallout 76 called the Power Armor Edition. This basically contained a copy of the game, some other goodies, although the main draw is the bundled Power Armor Helmet along with a canvas carrying bag. Unfortunately gamers did not get what was promised.
Many had discovered that Bethesda had swapped out the canvas bag for a nylon bag instead, which unsurprisingly incensed many gamers given how much it cost ($200 for the Power Armor Edition). In fact based on photos tweeted by gamers, it did not even come close. Some even accused the company of trying to cover their tracks by editing the description on its website, although the text in the image was unchanged.
Some gamers even shared screenshots of their conversations with Bethesda’s customer service reps who told them that the canvas bag was a prototype that was too expensive to make. Bethesda has since walked back on that by saying that the reason for changing was due to an “unavailability of materials”, which many felt was fall advertising and that they should have been told beforehand.
The company has attempted to make things right by giving players 500 Atoms, an in-game currency valued at around $5, which many felt was ridiculous given that it pretty much costs Bethesda nothing (unless you count opportunity cost) to give away $10, $50, or $100 worth of in-game currency. The irony is the 500 Atoms is still not enough to buy the in-game version of the outfit that comes with the canvas bag.
So far reviews of Fallout 76 have been mixed and it isn’t the runaway hit that the company was hoping for, and these scandals certainly don’t seem to be helping.