At this point, saying Bethesda's launch of Fallout 76 has been rough is a big understatement. The game itself is full of bugs and glitches that hinder play, and its lack of human NPCS is a downright crime when compared to past Fallout games. It only gets worse outside of the game. The latest? Bethesda gave a bunch of Youtubers free swag that was meant for buyers of the $200 collector's edition.
For those who haven't been following the saga, the gist is that the $200 Power Armor collector's edition was supposed to include a bunch of cool things. Things that, you know, made it worth $200. One item, however, was way worse than promised. The special duffle bag that was advertised as canvas ended up being made of a rather cheap nylon. The now-infamous response from a Bethesda customer service rep was that "the bag shown in the media was a prototype and was too expensive to make."
Except a nice canvas bag does exist, Eurogamer reports. It was just given to social media influencers and Youtubers instead of paying customers.
This revelation was brought to light by HeelsvsBabyface. In a recent video, he shares several "unboxing" videos from other Youtubers who were invited to an exclusive Fallout 76 event in October. Of interest is that these influencers received their swag in, as one of them called it, "this fancy backpack here."
It must be said that the backpack given to Youtubers is not the same design as the one from the Power Armor collector's edition. It might have even been created by an entirely different company for all we know. Still, the fact that Bethesda was willing to give influencers "fancy backpacks" on top of paying for their flights and hotel rooms for the event makes the whole "the bag shown in media was too expensive to make" argument look very weak.
Indeed, the comments on HeelsvsBaby's video show that fans are making the connection, and are reasonably upset. Why should influencers be given preferential treatment to the people who actually give Bethesda money? Bethesda was asked for a comment, but none was given as of this writing.
Fallout 76 is now available for PC, Xbox One, and PS4 if you somehow still want to play it. It's not that bad, as I said in my review, but in a world of cowboys and man spiders, it comes up short.