Fallout 76 was given away with a $5 PS4 thumbstick in Poland

[DPennington]

Facepalm: It just keeps getting worse for Fallout 76. After a barrage of bad reviews, terrible press, and poor PR decisions by Bethesda, retailers overseas are once again trying to offload the game by combining it with low-priced products. This time, Polish retailer X-Kom recently gave away copies of the game with the purchase of a $5 PS4 thumbstick.

It seems that in Europe you can get a copy of Fallout 76 with a purchase of just about anything. First, retailers in Germany were giving away the game with the purchase of used Playstation 4 controllers. Not to be outdone, Polish retailers were recently giving away copies of Fallout 76 when buying a $5 PS4 thumbstick.

Polish retailer X-Kom's overstock of these sweet thumbsticks was a Polish gamer's gain. For less than the cost of a cheap nylon bag, you could own a copy of the most maligned game in recent memory.

Unfortunately for anyone visiting Poland, this deal has officially ended as X-Kom burned through its supply of the thumbsticks. In fairness, X-Kom's website notes that it only sold 10 pieces so perhaps this was more of a PR play than anything else.

Fallout 76 has been a PR nightmare since launch, with Bethesda seemingly dropping the ball at every turn. The game's botched launch has been compared to Aliens: Colonial Marines and No Man's Sky, which doesn't exactly put it in great company. After the game was ripped to shreds by critics, Bethesda tried to sneak a low-quality bag into its $200 Power Armor edition of the game. Things got so bad that lawyers began to investigate Bethesda for "deceptive trade practices."

In fairness to Bethesda, they have been consistently releasing patches for the game, including one being released today. Bethesda seemingly remains committed to the future of Fallout 76 and could still reverse the game's fate now that they've weathered the storm.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/78830-fallout-76-given-away-5-ps4-thumbstick-poland.html

 

[TomSEA]

"Bethesda seemingly remains committed to the future of Fallout 76 and could still reverse the game's fate now that they've weathered the storm."

I think they should cut their losses. I have a half-dozen friends who pre-purchased the game and now want nothing to do with it. I personally don't know a single person who is playing it.

 

[DPennington]

"Bethesda seemingly remains committed to the future of Fallout 76 and could still reverse the game's fate now that they've weathered the storm."

I think they should cut their losses. I have a half-dozen friends who pre-purchased the game and now want nothing to do with it. I personally don't know a single person who is playing it.

I'm in total agreement. There have been companies that have salvaged games that had a lot of hype and a cult-like following - FFXIV comes to mind. But I don't have high hopes for Fallout 76. FFXIV was broken; 76 isn't broken, it's just terrible. I had a whole group of friends playing it and none of us even touch it now. It just sucks to see the Fallout franchise become a laughingstock.

 

[toooooot]

"Bethesda seemingly remains committed to the future of Fallout 76 and could still reverse the game's fate now that they've weathered the storm."

I think they should cut their losses. I have a half-dozen friends who pre-purchased the game and now want nothing to do with it. I personally don't know a single person who is playing it.

Is it because it doesn't have singleplayer or just terribly bad?

 

[Evernessince]

"Bethesda seemingly remains committed to the future of Fallout 76 and could still reverse the game's fate now that they've weathered the storm."

I think they should cut their losses. I have a half-dozen friends who pre-purchased the game and now want nothing to do with it. I personally don't know a single person who is playing it.

I'm in total agreement. There have been companies that have salvaged games that had a lot of hype and a cult-like following - FFXIV comes to mind. But I don't have high hopes for Fallout 76. FFXIV was broken; 76 isn't broken, it's just terrible. I had a whole group of friends playing it and none of us even touch it now. It just sucks to see the Fallout franchise become a laughingstock.

Honestly you could see it coming. Bethesda quality has gone down with each game. Starting with skyrim it's just been a continuous stripping of the RPG elements, simplification of the dungeons, the choices, and more. Every single skyrim dungeon is linear, in that there is only a single way to go. The "puzzles" are braindead easy, and they completely removed player stats among other simplifications.

Honestly I'm not expecting much from the next elder scrolls or fallout, especially if they decide to keep using the GameBryo engine.

 

[noel24]

Nuclear Fire Sale.

 

[DPennington]

"Bethesda seemingly remains committed to the future of Fallout 76 and could still reverse the game's fate now that they've weathered the storm."

I think they should cut their losses. I have a half-dozen friends who pre-purchased the game and now want nothing to do with it. I personally don't know a single person who is playing it.

I'm in total agreement. There have been companies that have salvaged games that had a lot of hype and a cult-like following - FFXIV comes to mind. But I don't have high hopes for Fallout 76. FFXIV was broken; 76 isn't broken, it's just terrible. I had a whole group of friends playing it and none of us even touch it now. It just sucks to see the Fallout franchise become a laughingstock.

Honestly you could see it coming. Bethesda quality has gone down with each game. Starting with skyrim it's just been a continuous stripping of the RPG elements, simplification of the dungeons, the choices, and more. Every single skyrim dungeon is linear, in that there is only a single way to go. The "puzzles" are braindead easy, and they completely removed player stats among other simplifications.

Honestly I'm not expecting much from the next elder scrolls or fallout, especially if they decide to keep using the GameBryo engine.

Maybe this will finally provoke Bethesda to innovate. They've quite literally been riding Skyrim for a decade. How many times has Skyrim been re-released now? It's like every few months there's a new Skyrim remaster, or port, or Bethesda-backed mod engine.

I think they've been able to ride the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality with this engine, but hopefully this makes it obvious that they need to move on. I can't image them sticking with GameBryo for another ES or Fallout after this mess.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

"Bethesda seemingly remains committed to the future of Fallout 76 and could still reverse the game's fate now that they've weathered the storm."

I think they should cut their losses. I have a half-dozen friends who pre-purchased the game and now want nothing to do with it. I personally don't know a single person who is playing it.

I'm in total agreement. There have been companies that have salvaged games that had a lot of hype and a cult-like following - FFXIV comes to mind. But I don't have high hopes for Fallout 76. FFXIV was broken; 76 isn't broken, it's just terrible. I had a whole group of friends playing it and none of us even touch it now. It just sucks to see the Fallout franchise become a laughingstock.

Not to mention, with FFXIV, the game was recalled and put through a massive 2 year redevelopment and then re-released with a public apology.

Bethesda has done nothing of the sort.

"Bethesda seemingly remains committed to the future of Fallout 76 and could still reverse the game's fate now that they've weathered the storm."

I think they should cut their losses. I have a half-dozen friends who pre-purchased the game and now want nothing to do with it. I personally don't know a single person who is playing it.

I'm in total agreement. There have been companies that have salvaged games that had a lot of hype and a cult-like following - FFXIV comes to mind. But I don't have high hopes for Fallout 76. FFXIV was broken; 76 isn't broken, it's just terrible. I had a whole group of friends playing it and none of us even touch it now. It just sucks to see the Fallout franchise become a laughingstock.

Honestly you could see it coming. Bethesda quality has gone down with each game. Starting with skyrim it's just been a continuous stripping of the RPG elements, simplification of the dungeons, the choices, and more. Every single skyrim dungeon is linear, in that there is only a single way to go. The "puzzles" are braindead easy, and they completely removed player stats among other simplifications.

Honestly I'm not expecting much from the next elder scrolls or fallout, especially if they decide to keep using the GameBryo engine.

Maybe this will finally provoke Bethesda to innovate. They've quite literally been riding Skyrim for a decade. How many times has Skyrim been re-released now? It's like every few months there's a new Skyrim remaster, or port, or Bethesda-backed mod engine.

I think they've been able to ride the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality with this engine, but hopefully this makes it obvious that they need to move on. I can't image them sticking with GameBryo for another ES or Fallout after this mess.

Bethesda isnt smart enough collectively to learn from this. If they were they would have learned from fallout 4 and skyrim.

Todd Howard only cares as long as money is rolling in. I'd bet that Fallout 76 sold enough preorders to cover costs, and Bethesda will proceed full steam ahead on Bugfield and Elder Bug VI.