After being dragged through the proverbial mud by the media (but mostly gamers), Bethesda finally decided to stop beating around the anti-consumer bush and do what they promised they were going to do when they first advertised the Fallout 76: Power Armor Edition on their website and on retailer websites: Send people the canvas bag that was supposed to come with the $200 collector’s edition.
The announcement about the canvas bag came by way of a tweet from the official Bethesda account on December 3rd, 2018.
We are finalizing manufacturing plans for replacement canvas bags for the Fallout 76: Power Armor Edition. If you purchased the CE, please visit https://t.co/S5ClEZuQrx and submit a ticket by Jan. 31, 2019. We’ll arrange to send you a replacement as soon as the bags are ready.
— Bethesda Support (@BethesdaSupport) December 3, 2018
They acknowledged that those who purchased the collector’s edition will be able to confirm their receipt with the support by going to the Bethesda Support page.
This comes after a week of being pelted by fans, consumers, and being investigated by legal firms for bait-and-switch false advertisement, since they originally advertised a canvas bag for the $200 collector’s edition, but then replaced it at the twelfth hour with a nylon bag, first citing the unavailability of materials, then stating that the canvas bag was too expensive, and then changing the story back to the unavailability of materials.
Meanwhile, Bethesda was giving away free canvas bags to YouTubers at a special press event.
Obviously, the people who paid $200 were pissed because Bethesda’s compensation for the false advertisement was originally to give gamers 500 Atoms worth of in-game currency, which amounted to around $4.99 of real life money.
A law firm began collecting stories and information to put together a potential class action lawsuit against the company for false advertisement.
If the lawsuit is already getting underway it might be too little, too late. However, this all depends on how many people skip out of the legal gymnastics and instead cop for a canvas bag replacement.
(Thanks for the news tip zac za)
