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The ‘Fallout 76’ Controversy Timeline – [Update: Jan. 2020]

Bethany Edelgard25 September 2019

The Never-Ending and Chronological Saga of Fallout 76.

In light of the recent Fallout 76 helmet situation, I think it’s about time someone made this list, so I decided ‘why not me’. Someone on Reddit did attempt making something like this before, but it is no longer being updated.

[May  2018] Announcement of Fallout 76. 

Bethesda announces Fallout 76, but the rumours surrounding it being an online survival RPG makes fans nervous, especially since the Fallout series is known for its single-player campaign. Bethesda also gets cocky by taking pre-orders for the game despite only releasing a teaser trailer.

As more information released, Bethesda hypes the game up at E3 and reveals that the game won’t have NPCs during the E3 Bethesda Press Conference on June 10th, 2018.

On August 6th 2018, Bethesda revealed to PCGamer that the game won’t be releasing on Steam, and instead will be released on Bethesda’s own game launcher.

Sources:

• Sources: Fallout 76 Is An Online Survival RPG
• Hey Bethesda, Maybe DON’T Take Preorders Before Clarifying What Fallout 76 Is
• Fallout 76 won’t launch on Steam

[October 23rd 2018] Fallout 76’s Poor Beta Foreshadows What Was To Come.  

On October 9th 2018, Fallout 76 retcons the Brotherhood of Steel lore.

On October 22nd 2018, Bethesda tries to tempers players expectations of the game’s beta. Nonetheless, players weren’t pleased with what they experienced. The game lacked a lot of what made Fallout what it was. Not to mention players started to realise how awful of a game engine Bethesda’s Creation Engine was for creating games.

On October 30th 2018, a bug in the game’s beta caused it to literally delete itself, an entire 50GB worth of game files.

On November 10th 2018, a user experiences a bug where they couldn’t uninstall the game’s beta.

Sources:

• Fallout 76 has retconned in the Brotherhood of Steel
• The ‘Fallout 76’ Beta Is Here and It’s Going to Be Buggy as Hell
• The ‘Fallout 76’ Beta Makes Me Sad
• Bethesda Tries To Set Player Expectations Ahead Of Fallout 76’s Beta
• Fallout 76 Bug Accidentally Deletes Entire 50GB Beta
• Fallout 76’s Fun Gameplay Loop is Marred by Shallow Quests, Soulless Story, & Lifeless World
• Bethesda’s Buggy Launcher Won’t Let Some Fallout 76 Beta Players Uninstall the Game
• ‘Fallout 76’ Shows Bethesda’s Engine Has Gone From Meme To Liability

[November 14th 2018] Fallout 76’s Release Is A Disaster: Poor Critical Reception, Poor Sales, And Drama.

The problems of Fallout 76’s beta went forward into the game’s full official release.

On November 19th, players launched so many nukes that it crashed the game’s servers.

On the same day, a guy destroys his local GameStop for not being able to return Fallout 76.

On November 21st 2018, Fallout 76 gets discounted significantly by 33%, despite only being out for a week.

On November 25th, Bethsheda promised a refund to a fan, but later told him he couldn’t get it.

On November 27th 2018, Bethesda is being investigated for deceptive refund policies with Fallout 76.

Sources:

• Fallout 76 Retail Sales Flop in UK, Down 82.4% From Fallout 4
• Metacritic: Fallout 76
• Guy Trashes GameStop After Being Told He Couldn’t Return Copy of Fallout 76
• BETHESDA PROMISED REFUND ON FALLOUT 76, THEN BAILED OUT THE NEXT DAY
• Fallout 76 players launched so many nukes at once that they crashed a server
• Fallout 76 Is Already Discounted Significantly
• Law Firm Investigating Bethesda for Deceptive Refund Practices with Fallout 76

[November 28th 2018] Fallout 76 Canvas Duffel Bag.

The canvas duffel bag in the $200 USD Power Armour Edition of Fallout 76 is replaced with a cheap, nylon bag. Insulting players even further, Bethsheda offered 500 atoms ($5 USD of in-game currency) to disappointed players. The best part was that players found out that you couldn’t even purchase an in-game version of a canvas bag with the 500 atoms given because it cost 700 atoms.

It gets better though (yes, that’s sarcasm): On November 30th 2018, people found out that influencers got free Fallout canvas bags by Bethesda.

On December 3rd 2018, Bethesda caves and promises to replace the nylon bags with the canvas bags they were supposed to initially give players.

On December 5th 2018, Bethesda accidentally leaks the private information of those who contacted Bethesda Support to have their replacement bags delivered.

On December 18th 2018, it’s revealed that fans have to wait 4-6 months to get their replacement bag.

Sources:

• $200 Fallout 76 Edition Promised Fancy Bag, Delivers Nylon Trash Instead [Update: Bethesda Responds]
• Bethesda offering $4.99 as compensation for the mishap with its $200 edition of Fallout 76
• Fallout 76 High-Quality Bags Given Free to Fallout Influencers
• Bethesda to finally deliver canvas bags following Fallout 76 fan fury
• Bethesda Support Leaks Fallout 76 Customer Names, Addresses & Phone Numbers
• ‘Fallout 76’ Replacement Bags Will Ship in 4-6 Months

[December 6th 2018] Fallout 76’s Patches Break The Game Even Further.

Fallout 76 introduces a new patch but hides what it actually contained. The patch also broke other things in the game and that included making the game more “grindier” than it was before.

On December 11th 2018, players suffer from broken Ultrawide screen support in Fallout 76.

Sources:

• Fallout 76’s New Patch Brings Unexpected Changes And More Tedium
• Fallout 76 players bummed by bug fix that makes the game less friendly
• Bethesda Embarrasses Itself Again With Broken Ultrawide Fix for Fallout 76

[December 16th 2018] Nuka Dark Rum. 

Buyers of the Nuka Dark Rum product were deceived into believing that the product by Bethesda and Silver Screen Bottling Company would be a recreation of the in-game bottle, but it turned out that the rum was placed in a regular rum bottle and encased in a plastic shell of replica of the Nuka Dark Rum bottle from the game.

Also, the rum tasted like sh*t.

Sources:

• ‘FALLOUT 76’ NUKA DARK RUM DELAYED, IS THE FRANCHISE CURSED?
• Bethesda Scammed Me. Fallout 76 Nuka Dark Rum.
• Fallout Fans Unhappy With Plastic Nuka Dark Rum Bottles

[December 18th 2018] Bethesda Reveals Their Holiday Greed With Microtransactions.

Fallout 76 features two Christmas bundles “Holidays Emote”, which cost 1200 atoms ($12 USD), and “Comin’ To Town“, which cost 2000 atoms ($20 USD). What made it worse was that they falsely represented that the bundles were discounted, when in fact, the bundles launched at the price they were at. This is illegal in some countries.

Sources:

• Fallout 76’s Atomic Shop prices are leading to fallout
• Bethesda Insults Players Further with Overpriced Holiday Junk and Fake Discounts for Fallout 76

[December 26th 2018] Bethesda Bans Players And Tells Them To Write Essays.

Players are banned and then told by Bethesda to write 500-word essays to undo their bans. Some claim that they were falsely banned.

Sources:

• Bethesda Questionably Bans Some Fallout 76 Players, Asks Them to Write Apologetic Essay as Appeal
• Banned Fallout 76 players say Bethesda wants an essay to get accounts back
• Bethesda Has Officially Lost Their DAMN Minds

[January 1st 2019] Fallout 76 Starts The New Year With Bugged Nukes.

Players discover that the nukes in the game were completely disabled by a bug.

Sources:

• Fallout 76 Starts Off 2019 With Glitched Nukes
• A ‘Fallout 76’ Bug Has Disabled All Nuclear Weapons in the Game

[January 12th 2019] Discovery of the Secret Developer Room.

Players discovered the secret developer room in the game. Bethesda is unaware of how players got access to it.

On the 19th January 2019, players were being banned for having accessed the room or for exploiting it for items.

Sources:

• Fallout 76 players break into developer room, discover Wooby
• Bethesda bans Fallout 76 players in possession of dev room items

[January 24th 2019] Bethsheda Sells Premium Fallout 76 Leather Jackets for $276 USD.

Bethesda advertises their highly-priced Fallout 76 leather jackets, but Twitter users proceeded to rightfully roast them due to the apparent low quality of the product (or at least for the price that they were asking for).

Sources:

• Twitter reacts to $276 Fallout 76 jacket with a bunch of bag jokes
• The Internet Roasts Bethesda’s “Premium” $276 Fallout 76 Leather Jacket

[January 30th 2019] Fallout 76 Brings Back Old Bugs.

Staying true to their nature, Bethsheda reintroduces bugs like the ‘heavy bobby pins’ bug that was previously fixed.

Sources:

• Fallout 76 Players Throw Up Their Hands At The Return Of Heavy Bobby Pins
• Bethesda Faces Protest After Disastrous Fallout 76 Patch Reintroduces Old Bugs
• The latest Fallout 76 patch reintroduced several bugs

[Feburary 11th 2019] Stores Desperately Try To Get Rid of Fallout 76 copies.

Fallout 76’s sales are so poor that retailers try to bundle the game with anything to get rid of extra game copies, practically giving away the game. Even for game bundles that came with a digital copy of Fallout 76, a game store was bundling the physical copy of the game for free with it.

Sources:

• Fallout 76 Retailers Are Desperately Trying to Sell Copies by Bundling it With Hard Drives
• Retailers Are Literally Giving Away Fallout 76 With EVERYTHING

[Feburary 19th 2019] Bethesda Breaks Their “Cosmetic Only” Promise.

Bethesda introduces the “Unstoppables” costumes that gave players an in-game advantage, despite Bethesda’s initial promise of “cosmetic only” microtransactions.

Sources:

• Bethesda Caught With Its Pants Down Again, Fallout 76 Microtransactions Aren’t Cosmetics Only
• Bethesda Broke Their Promise That Fallout 76 Microtransactions Would Be Cosmetic Only

[Feburary 20th 2019] Bethesda Bans Player with Over 900 Hours in Fallout 76.

What clearly has to be Fallout 76’s most dedicated Fallout 76 player, gets banned for carrying too much ammo in the game. They clocked 900 hours into Fallout 76.

Sources:

• Fallout 76 player who spent 900 hours in-game says they’ve been banned
• Banned. I’m the 900 hours played guy.

[April 8th 2019] Bethesda Adds Pay To Win Repair Kits to Fallout 76.

Continuing with the gameplay affecting microtransactions, Bethesda reveals repair kits to Fallout 76. They officially added them on April 23rd 2019.

Sources:

• Fallout 76 Repair Kits raise new “pay-to-win” concerns
• Fallout 76’s paid Repair Kits are causing some controversy
• Repair Kits Added To Fallout 76, And Microtransactions Are Tied To Unlocking Them
• ‘Fallout 76’ Patch Adds Controversial Repair Kits

[June 3rd 2019] Todd Howard Admits They Knew The Game Was In A Sorry State Before Release.

In an interview with IGN, Todd Howard admits that the Bethsheda team knew that Fallout 76 would “have bumps”. This means that even though Todd should have known that the game wasn’t ready for public release, they still went ahead and launched the game anyway to consumers.

Sources:

• Bethesda Knew Fallout 76 ‘Would Have Bumps’ – IGN Unfiltered
• Bethesda Knew Fallout 76 Would Have Rough Launch & Shipped It Anyway
• Todd Howard’s ‘Fallout 76’ Admission Is A Weird Moment For The Industry

[July 17th 2019] Fallout 76 Gets Broken…Again.

Fallout 76 patch brings terrible bugs to the game (Ha, deja vu).

Sources:

• Fallout 76 players say big new patch is a mess
• Fallout 76 Desperately Needs to Test-Play Its Patches More
• Fallout 76 Patch 11 Breaks Game Again, Brings Back Old Bugs, Doubles Down on Monetization

[September 11th 2019] Fallout 76’s Atomic Shop Items Angers The Community.

Keeping up with adding even more gameplay affecting microtransactions, Fallout 76 has new items in the Atomic shop to dig into the pockets of players.

Sources:

• Fallout 76 fans are furious over the newest cash shop items
• Fallout 76 players aren’t impressed with the new $7 fridge
• Fallout 76 Angers Players Again, Charges For More Gameplay Features Despite Cosmetic Only Promise

[September 13th 2019] Fallout 76’s Junk Bot Being Sold To Players, Despite Originally Being In The Base Game.

Fallout 76’s Junkbot sparks controversy as it was apparently taken from the base game and is now being sold to players for $5 USD.

Sources:

• Fallout 76’s $5 junk bot was apparently meant to be in the base game
• Fallout 76 Sells Gameplay Feature Stripped From Base Game Despite Cosmetic Only Promise

[September 24th 2019] Fallout 76 Helmet Recalled Due To Mold.

The most recent fiasco, at the time of writing, is the Fallout 76 red power armour helmet from Gamestop that was recalled on September 19th due to major health risks of mold.

Sources:

• A collectible Fallout 76 helmet was recalled due to dangerous levels of mold
• Fallout 76 wearable helmet recalled because of dangerous mold

[October 23rd 2019] Fallout 76 introduces ‘Fallout 1st’, a premium $100 USD annual subscription service for the game.

Fallout 76 now has a reoccurring membership service called ‘Fallout 1st’ which gives players exclusive items, private servers, 1650 Atoms per month, and a survival tent flashpoint. This will cost a player a nice sum of $13 USD a month or $100 USD a year.

Unfortunately for players, there are numerous problems plaguing the service at launch, including issues with the game’s Scrap Box making player items disappear.

And in a hilarious turn of events, a player purchased the Fallout 1st domain, falloutfirst.com, as a ‘f**k you’ to Bethesda.

The final icing on the cake is where Fallout 76 players who bought the subscription are being targeted by non-subscribers. Considering buying the subscription only serves to encourage Bethseda’s greedy tactics, I dare say it’s pretty understandable why this is happening.

Sources:

• Bethesda Is Now Selling $100 Annual Subscriptions For Exclusive Fallout 76 Features
• Bethesda’s ‘Fallout First’ Fallout 76 subscription is the worst deal in gaming history
• Fallout 76’s subscription  service is busted, paying players say
• Fallout 76 Players Reporting Issues With New Subscription Scrapboxes
• Fallout 76’s Premium Private Servers Are Not Private, Its Scrap Box Is Deleting Scrap
• Player claims Fallout 1st domain to protest Fallout 76’s subscription
• Disgruntled Fallout 76 Fan Makes a Mockery of Fallout 1st by Purchasing Critical Web Domain
• Fallout 76 players are griefing Fallout 1st subscribers for supporting the service

[November 1st 2019] ZeniMax, Bethesda’s Parent Company, has to give Australian customers of Fallout 76 refunds for “misleading” them.

Thanks to the intervention of the ACCC, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, ZeniMax Media has to refund buyers of Fallout 76 in Australia due to it “misleading” customers, referring to the game’s numerous and unfixed technical issues

Sources:

• Fallout 76 buyers in Australia will be offered refunds from Bethesda’s parent company
• ZeniMax Ordered to Issue Fallout 76 Refunds to Some Australian Players After They Were Misled

[November 8th 2019] Bethesda’s customer support bans players for trying to improve/fix the game. 

Since Bethesda is too inept to find and fix bugs in their game, there were loyal players who reported bugs they found in the game…only to get the ban hammer from Bethesda 🙁

Sources:

• Bethesda Absurdly Bans Loyal Fallout 76 Player For Trying To Help Improve The Game
• Bethesda banned the creator of fo76 interactive map and refused to cancel fo1st membership
• Map76 Officially Closed; Creator Gives Explanation
• More Loyal Fallout 76 Contributors Banned As Bethesda’s Awful Customer Support Fails To Keep Up
• Bethesda Doubles Down On Permabanning Loyal/Helpful Fallout 76 Players, Issues Useless Response
• Players are NOT banned for reporting issues and/or exploits

[December 10th 2019] Fallout 76 patch breaks weapons/armour…

…surprising absolutely no one.

Sources:

• [Massive Bug] Bethesda fixed +250 DR while reloading but managed to break All Armor legendary Effects when you reload any weapon and the durability of weapons and armor
• Fallout76 new bug on Vanguard thorn armour
• Defective Fallout 76 Patch Breaks Weapons & Armor in Another Embarrassing Bethesda Blunder

[December 18th 2019] Hackers break Fallout 76 by spawning items and stealing from other players’ inventories.

During the game’s free weekend, hackers used cheats to spawn items in the game which also allowed them to input custom stats for those items.

On December 22nd, the second major hack comes out that allows hackers to steal player inventories in their entirety.

Sources:

• Bethesda Responds To Hackers Causing Mayhem In Fallout 76 With Asset/NPC/Item Spawning Exploit
• [COMPLETE] Fallout 76 Maintenance – December 18, 2019
• Fallout 76 Hackers Can Now Steal Other Players’ Entire Inventory
• The Hackers That Spawned The Prydwen Sent Me A Warning About The Next Devastating Hack
• Fallout 76 Inventory Stealing Hack Goes Live & Causes Mass Thefts As Bethesda Fails To Take Measures
• An Update on the Current PC Exploit
• Bethesda Downplays Damage By Fallout 76 Hackers & Pretends 2019 Was A Good Year For The Game

Fallout 76 Fail Count: 25

(And this is a conservative count)

Credits:

• Jim Sterling’s video: A Post-Nuclear Post-Mortem Of Fallout 76 (The Jimquisition).
• YongYea for covering the whole situation. I’ve been using his videos to get more in-depth information. Playlist below compiled by me.

✿ Special thanks to Sophie Stormwind for being my first patron and Jessa Hurty, Mike and someone for buying me my first coffees on Ko-Fi! ✿

✿ Special thanks to Nat Roberts, Stephanie Elise, and Deanna & Maddison for contributing to my Paypal in my time of desperate need! ✿

Love you all so much! o(TヘTo) *big kisses and hugs* ♥♥