At release, players were outraged by more than just the technical state of the project.
Former VP of PR and Marketing Pete Hines no longer works at Bethesda, but still remembers the Fallout 76 collector's edition story well.
Back then, buyers of the Power Armor Edition received a low-quality nylon alternative instead of the expected canvas bag. Bethesda explained that the replacement occurred due to a shortage of the necessary material, and offered a small amount of in-game currency as an apology (several months later, buyers were still sent normal bags).
Pete Hines himself learned about the incident when his own Fallout 76 collector's edition reached him — this surprised him greatly, as he had approved a different version of the edition:
«My first reaction was: \"What the *** did we add a canvas bag to this collector's edition for?\" Because it wasn't in the version I approved. They [Bethesda] were trying to increase the value of the collector's edition. We were constantly arguing with the financiers about the margin...I threw tantrums: \"We can't charge $300 for this, it's just offensive.\"»
However, in this case, they were right. There was literally not enough [of the right material], and some decided that we would make these bags. My biggest mistake was not insisting on making the bags right away and sending them to everyone who wanted them. Because I was still annoyed that this thing was even [part of the edition], and no one told me about it, and that this material shortage happened. This is probably the dumbest thing I've ever done at Bethesda».
The expected bag is shown on the left, and what buyers initially received is on the right.
