Former longtime Bethesda marketing and publishing boss Pete Hines retired after Microsoft bought parent company ZeniMax, and in a new interview, he discussed one part of his career where he did the “dumbest thing.”
Some may recall that one of the promised items in Fallout 76’s $200 Power Armor Edition was a canvas West Tek bag. However, upon delivery, fans noticed that the bundle came with a low-cost nylon bag instead. Bethesda eventually did right by players, but the events clearly left a mark on Hines.
He said in an interview with dbltap that the version of the Power Armor Edition that he signed off on did not have a canvas bag. Someone was trying to “add more value” to the premium edition, and while Hines admits to throwing “sh*t fits” from time to time, in this case, “their hearts were in the right place” with the idea to add more value. What happened was that there was “literally a canvas shortage” at the time, and it was decided by “some folks” to include a nylon bag 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,” he said.
Bethesda initially announced it would compensate purchasers with 500 Atoms for Fallout 76, but players quickly roasted Bethesda for this, as it only amounts to $5 worth of compensation. The company later allowed purchasers who received a nylon bag to request a canvas bag.
Fallout 76 is still getting new updates and support, with plans for more content to come based on the Prime Video Fallout TV series. Looking further out, Bethesda is developing Fallout 5, but it’s not coming until after The Elder Scrolls VI, so no one should expect to play it anytime soon.
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