Pete Hines, Bethesda's former president of publishing, doesn't have many regrets from his 24 years at the company, but Fallout 76's infamous Collector's Edition still irks him.
Fallout 76 was plagued with so many blunders and controversies, it's ultra-expensive Collector's Edition sometimes gets lost in memory when compared to how broken the game itself was. The $200 Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition included a bunch of post-apocalyptic trinkets (including an LED headlamp and a Power Armor helmet), but the promised West Tek canvas bag never showed up at players' doors - it was replaced with a cheaper nylon version.
"My first reaction was, 'When the f**k did we add a canvas bag to this Collector's Edition?' Because the version I approved did not have one," Hines told DBLTAP, explaining that he only found out about the swap when he opened his own Power Armor Edition parcel. "They were trying to add more value to the Collector's Edition. We were always fighting with the finance people about margins, right? I would throw shit fits around. 'We cannot charge $300 for this, it's f***ing insulting.'"
Instead of immediately sending everyone the canvas bag that was promised, Bethesda opted to change the edition's advertising copy online, reimbursed buyers with some in-game Fallout 76 cash, and explained that there was a canvas bag shortage, hence the last-minute swap. It still play on Hines' mind, though.
"In this case, their hearts were in the right place," he continued. "There was literally a canvas shortage, and some folks decided we're going to do this instead. My biggest failing there was not pushing immediately for making and sending one to everybody that wants one. Because I was still annoyed that the damn thing was in there in the first place, and nobody had told me and that this canvas shortage happened. It's probably the dumbest thing I ever did at Bethesda."
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