The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a recall of the wearable Fallout 76 power armor helmet, due to a mold risk.
As explained on their website, the T-51b Power Armor Collectible Helmet can have mold in the helmet. “Mold can be present on the fabric insert inside the helmet, posing a risk of respiratory or other infections in individuals with compromised immune systems, damaged lungs or an allergy to mold.”
The recall was issued on September 19th, advising those who got the helmet from GameStop (a separate, Nuka Cola edition from the regular Power Armor special edition) should contact the store for a full refund and return instructions. Due to the usage of the word “full refund”, it may be safe to assume this is the entire cost of the special edition, and not just the helmet.
As of this time of writing, there has been no official statement from Bethesda across Twitter or its official website (1, 2, 3, 4) It remains to be seen if the regular Power Armor Edition helmet has the same risk.
Fallout 76 has been plagued with issues both in-game and in real life. While Bethesda Director and Executive Producer Todd Howard stated he “knew we were gonna have a lot of bumps,” the issues have been numerous and serious.
When the game was launched, it was discovered to be heavily buggy (as documented by Internet Historian and Joseph Anderson Editor’s Note: Niche Gamer is not affiliated with either of these YouTube accounts, nor it support any allegations made in these videos). This resulted in extremely low reviewer and user scores.
Once details of how to get a refund even after playing the game for 24-hours became wide-spread, Bethesda stopped issuing refunds. This resulted in a lawsuit investigation from Migliaccio & Rathod LLP, over Bethesda “releasing a heavily-glitched game, Fallout 76, and refusing to issue refunds for PC purchasers of the game who found it to be unplayable because of its technical problems.”
The game’s Atomic Shop for micro-transactions was also criticized for high prices, and falsely labeling products as being discounted (when the sale price was the same as the original prior to the sale, with a false figure listed as the original). While the store was also touted as being purely cosmetic, gameplay-altering items such as extra health and repair kits have been offered in the past. Users even noticed a robot that collects junk which was sold on the Atomic store may have been initially planned for the base game.
The canvas bag from the aforementioned Power Armor Edition was found to be made of a cheaper nylon material, Bethesda offered $5 worth of in-game currency (500 Atoms). This failed to quell user’s dissatisfaction. The canvas bag was eventually shipped six months later. Support tickets for the aforementioned issue also ended up being sent to random individuals unencrypted- not only allowing anyone to open and close tickets, but to also view home address and some credit-card information.
Another piece of merchandise (separate from Fallout 76 but initially planned to release the same time) showed a “Nuka Cola Dark Rum” bottle for $80, many assumed was made of glass. Finally releasing four months later, the final product was a plastic shell around a normal glass bottle. The shell also made pouring difficult, and any spillage would ruin the label on the bottle.
In addition, a Fallout 76 themed leather jacket (made form “real premium lambskin leather“) costing $276 was openly mocked, due to unflattering photography, models wearing jackets too large or small for them, appearing gaudy, and the bag shown looking creased and more akin to a body-bag.
Fallout 76 is now available for Windows PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In case you missed it – you can find our very thorough review for the game here.
