Law firm planning Class Action Lawsuit against Bethesda for not fulfilling Fallout 76 refunds

A law firm is planning a Class Action Lawsuit against Bethesda for Deceptive Trade Practices as they failed to fulfill refunds for Fallout 76.

[ArchangelMike]

Good. No company should be given a free pass when it comes to anti-consumerist practices; and especially Bethesda who send their lawyers after people who try to trade games that they have rightfully bought. I hope hope Bethesda get a strong dose of their own medicine.

Edit: No one can convince me that "digital" is the way we should go. It only enables anti-consumer practices like these even more. "You can't get a refund because you bought it digitally" - my a$$. Companies like Stream, etc have been offering refunds on digital games for ages now.

[chris235]

sorry, going digital is the future if not already reality. you clingers to physical data carriers are a dying breed. this is a hard fact. personally, i am so glad that those dustcatchers are on their way out. there are methods to tell shady devs to back off: do not buy bad products. easy.

[xenz]

I believe that both digital and physical can co-exist, forever. Some People simply just prefer to buy physical, and its a stupid business idea to exclude such a huge portion of gamers.

I personally prefer digital. But that doens't mean there can't be both.

[CorndogBurglar]

As if anyone is going to listen to what you have to say. You never have anything even remotely positive to say. It just figures that you would back up Bethesda by saying "do not buy bad products", as if there was any indication that Fallout 76 would be the disaster it is. Sure people were upset about the MP only part. But clearly others didn't mind it. But there wasn't anything suggesting the game would be the giant mess it is. Even though Bethesda is known for releasing games with bugs, they were never this bad. And this game is just boring mess even without the bugs.

[Shiken]

You buy digital then and I will buy physical. Your way of thinking is narrow minded and selfish. But then, nothing you say gets taken seriously anyway, soooo....

[elazz]

No no nope. You know that many people don't spend hours on the internet searching for mistakes in games. If you buy a product and tis faulty you should be able to return it. Regardless whether it was known by some in advance or not

[DJStotty]

I completely disagree, music still isnt digital only, and how many years has it been since music was digitalised?

Even vinyl is still pressed and sold. Physical will never be obsolete with anything, give me 1 example of something that is digital only please?

[Nyxus]

No physical, no buy.

[WANNAGETHIGH]

Christ not 1 agree and 39 disagrees. I guess is safe to say that physical CD copies are not going anywhere. 🤷🏽‍♂️

[Newmanator]

"Dying breed" *has 42 Dislikes 0 Likes*

[JesusBuiltmyHotrod]

An idiot is born every minute...

[Kados]

If you are fine with not actually owning the games you buy, only having a licence to play the game, which can be revoked at any time for any reason, not being able to resell, and not being able to go back and play it 20 years from now, so be it. You are in the minority though. 90% of gamers still prefer physical media, for good reason.

With physical, you can also back up all your games once CFW comes out. You will then have digital copies for convenience, while still retaining all the benefits of physical media.

[4Sh0w]

I love digital BUT Iam so glad Bethesda will be held accountable for not fullfilling their end of the bargain & yes digital can be REFUNDED, game data/license removed/deleted & even traded just like physical, personally I don't miss going to Gamestop or ever touching a disc= Im almost 44yrs old, between family & work I value my time few hrs per week, CONVENIENCE IS ABSOLUTELTY PARAMOUNT, gaming trade ins of a few dollars for a $60 game I bought a few months ago means absolutely nothing to me, thus I haven't bought a physical game in like 4yrs, not 1, Im.so spoiled I secretly hate when 1 of my family members gifts me a physical game, haha but thats just me.

[bigmalky]

Did using capitals die off too?

[ajax17]

Digital is only great for deep sales like PSN flash sales. And of course indie games.

But until they stop making improvements to disc space and read speeds, I don't see physical going away. Plus not everyone has gigabit internet. I hate spending literally days downloading a 50-60 gb game

[Artemidorus]

It's examples like this failure of a company that gives us physical enjoyers ammunition to say we are not going digital until new laws and rules are put in place.

You new generation lot are a throw away society with anything, never look and appreciate the nostalgic value in something in your hand and fire up after a very long time.

[rainslacker]

Thank you for letting us know. Nothing like a conformist to tell us what the future holds. Always enjoy seeing someone who is willing to accept whatever is put in front of them with open arm with complete disregard for what would be good for them as a consumer.

Why do you care if physical sticks around? Physical existing has no effect on digital. Physical disappearing won't in any way make digital better. The crappy industry practices exist between both formats. Consumers have more rights with those dust catcher, but you seem to have a personal vendetta with them...and that's just not healthy.

[Seraphim]

I certainly don't commend Bethesda for releasing a hot buggy mess but when it comes to software sales once the game is open retailers don't accept returns or offer refunds. Why should this be an different. Granted in some rare cases one might be able to get a manager or employee who doesn't know better to approve a refund but every single stores policy on software is no returns once opened. If defective you can exchange it for a shiny new copy.

While they certainly screwed the pooch and had to have known just how bad it was and instead of doing the right thing and just delaying it till Q1-Q4 '19... Considering how buggy all their games are at release perhaps they just figured this would fly among their players. After all I can't think of a single Bethesada game that wasn't a buggy mess. I have to side with Bethesda here. Why should digital sales be different from physical. Once the sale is made and the game opened refunds are not an option. Ultimately consumers need to make better decisions. Perhaps this will teach millions of gamers to do their due diligence before jumping head first into any game regardless of it's title or what IP it comes from. I've always had a great track record but a few games during the PS2 era made me realize I needed to be cautious about exactly what I'm buying. Since then haven't bought a single turd.

[Andy_Dee]

Retailers do refund. WB gave refunds for Batman and it didn't matter physical or digital so why not?

A good company should recognize when mistakes have been made or having released a bad product and accept refunds. Simply put. Be service minded towards your customers!!

[DJStotty]

Even i know Bethesda games especially fallout and elder scrolls, always have lots of bugs at launch.

If you bought the game expecting it to be bug free then i feel sorry for you. No game is without a day one patch or bugs.

[JackBNimble]

I can't take any opened physical game and return it to any retail store anywhere and get a refund. All I can do is exchange it for another copy of the same game.

[WANNAGETHIGH]

Good , we as consumers need to start calling out crap game when we see it. It’s not like they give us the game for free, we pay 60$ for a game at least let us have our money’s worth. I will never shit on a game developer because it’s not my field and I know how hard it is to develope a game, I will always give credit where credit is due. But in this case Bethesda deserves all the backlash they are getting.

[JackBNimble]

Sure, you have a point, but at the same time people were questioning the quality of the game and calling it out long before release.
Even here on N4g and Reddit there was so much negativity about 76 and that should have been a huge warning sign.

I get it, we are a small minority on these sites but it's not like the info wasn't right there. I mean who the hell goes out and buys games and does absolutely no research?

[milohighclub]

I buy digital n wouldn't have it another way. When I lost my job I had to sell my pro to male rent, when I had the cash to get another I still had my library. If I bought physical i'd have to rebuy an entire gens worth of games.

I fully support digital but agree things need to change when it comes to refunds. Or there should be laws against review embargo.

The lesson is, if a dev is known for buggy games or has a poor release history. Don't buy day one.

[rainslacker]

You'd only have to rebuy it if you sold your physical games too. In your situation, you could have sold those games as well, and gotten more money when you needed it. Digital made that impossible, unless you happen to find someone to buy your account, which is hard to do. In which case, you'd be in the same position.

You're making a positive for digital over two non-equal parts.

I agree about the consumer rights surrounding digital should be worked more into the customers interests though, and I have no problem if you prefer digital.

[milohighclub]

Yeah that's true but I didn't want to sell my games as well, I knew I would be getting another PlayStation in the future.
If I had of bought physical, I would have sold them as well meaning i'd of made a massive loss on the games and had to spend a whole lot more to get them back.

Because there are positives to buying digital, just as there are to buying physical.
Both have pros and cons and a place in gaming.

For me digital is the way forward, its not for everybody, but it's not a bad way to go.

[ufo8mycat]

I HOPE this succeeds. The gaming industry is like the Wild West where publishers can DELIBERATELY release either broken or garbage games with no consequences. There needs to be laws in place to prevent this kind of practice.

[Gwiz]

I'm not surprised,it's better this happens before gaming as a whole shifts towards streaming.
This should've happened earlier IMO.

[AK91]

Awesome

[KillZallthebeast]

Getting tired of these articles 76 is a fun game even if it isn't fallout

Edit: pre reply to all the disagrees have you even played it yourself

[CorndogBurglar]

Yes I played it and it sucks. You know how you can tell a game actually sucks or not? Look at all the negative feedback it was getting pre-launch, then compare it to feedback post launch. If it is similar feedback, then the game really does suck.

Look at Pokemon Let's Go. People were tearing that game apart as soon as the reveal trailer came out. But a day or two after launch you see all these reviews giving it great scores, players saying they love it live streamers making videos about how great it is, and journalists writing articles about how good it is and how wrong they were.

That's how you know a good game was pre-judged. But when a game releases and it gets abysmal reviews, articles complaining about its bugs, and players demanding refunds then you know you have a bad game on your hands.

Sorry, but this isn't a matter of a game being average. It's just a bad game. Period. But hey, its okay to like bad games.

[DJStotty]

the only problem i have with it so far is not enough inventory storage space for all my junk.

Other than that me and my friends are hooked

[chippychan]

Good comparison with the whole Pokemon Let's Go games... that got so much hate when it was announced but now people are loving it after it actually released. Fallout 76 got so much hate when it was announced and now people are still giving it so much hate after it actually released.

It really does tell you something about how a GOOD game can turn people's opinions around and it really seems like Fallout 76 just isn't really a good game.

[KillZallthebeast]

I don't disagree entirely but fallout fans are far more militant than pokemon fans could dream of being

[DJStotty]

Its just from salty fanboys who wanted a single player fallout. nothing more nothing less

[isa_scout]

The game is more fun with friends, but isn't every game? I am only a level 14 so only a few hours in and its absolute garbage. When a game has 80Gbs worth of post launch updates within two weeks you know something is seriously wrong.

[CorndogBurglar]

Really? Everyone that bought this game were well aware that it was not a single player Fallout. All the reviewers were also well aware of that. All the very valid complaints have nothing to do with it not being single player.

Again, it's okay to like bad games. I've liked my share in the past. But you can't try to justify all the negative reviews and people's dislike of the game by saying they are just mad it's not single player lol. The negative points are valid and exist, whether you want to acknowledge them or not.

[Hungryalpaca]

I’m not a salty fanboy. I’m not even a huge fallout fan. The game sucks. The quests are boring, repetitive fetch quests or go here kill this. The graphics are horrendous, the physics are broken, the game runs like my ass after a Taco Bell buffet, it’s glicthed beyond belief, there is NO security meaning anyone can mess up your game, there is no endgame, the story is robots and audio logs (yawn), the controls are TERRIBLE and unresponsive, my 1080 barely gets above 25 fps. I get 90 in fallout 4.

No. It’s not the fanboys. It’s bethesda releasing a garbage game. YOURE the fanboy blindly defending shit.

[WillyC009]

I've played it. Its trash, period. Your opinion may differ but you are by far in the minority. Dont try and paint everyone with the same brush. Not even making this game single player would have saved it.

[Cobra951]

I *am* a "salty" fanboy of Bethesda's traditional SP games. I wanted this lazy cash grab to crash and burn. But I didn't make it happen. Bethesda did that all on their own. And I am so very happy that 76 is circling the drain.

[4Sh0w]

lol, Cobra, personallyI never WANT to see a game fail even if its not my cup of tea....but I do think devs & pubs deserve what they get when it seems they release cash grab games instead of a sincere attempt to make a great gaming experience.....but lol at least you're being honest.

[DJStotty]

If you dont like the game, trade it in, its simple.

My personal opinion of the game is its good, granted its not perfect but what game is. How can other players wreck your game? They cant kill you unless you return fire.

Some people will like it others wont, its personal preference

[Hungryalpaca]

I have played it. It’s awful. It’s stupid easy when it’s not glitching out. It’s a giant fetch quest for robots. There is literally nothing interesting in it.

[KillZallthebeast]

4 was stupid easily regardless of the difficulty and was mostly fetch quests

Edit: you think preston asking for your help was unique?

[Baza]

This just keep getting better.

[kwijgaming]

With a company as litigious as Bethesda has been in the past, I won't exactly lose any sleep over this if they haven't been honoring refunds.

[rainslacker]

I'm not sure they are required to honor refunds if the person hasn't met the requirements for their digital storefront....whatever they may be(time played???).

That said, this will benefit the lawyers more than the players, but if it sends a message to the industry that they need to be better, then it might be worth it. If the lawsuit comes to judgement, it could force changes to digital policies across the board, because anything that goes into precedent opens up all sorts of doors for others to sue outside of class actions.

[Shikoku]

Good its time the gaming industry it held accountable gaming consumers get no real protections because people even to this day have the additude "its just a game" no its a product and gamers deserve the same protections other consumers get.

[Relientk77]

Fallout 76 is a disaster lol

[ccgr]

I wonder if credit card companies would allow a refund

[Cobra951]

You would have to dispute the transaction. I did that once, many years ago, when I ordered a computer from an outfit called Comtrade. The thing was too trashy to accept, and I tried to return it for a refund. When I couldn't get past the runaround, the secretary where I worked helped me file a dispute with my credit-card company. (She was a pro at this.) They clawed the money I paid back from the vendor, and froze it. That forced Comtrade to act, and the dispute was resolved with them getting their crappy PC back, and me getting back my money.

[TheVigilanteCode]

This game just keeps on giving. Never change, Bethesda.

The Mass Effect: Andromeda of 2018, or even worse.

[william_cade]

They purposely made a shitty game to cash in. Most of us saw it coming, but just because a lot of people knew the game was going to be shit doesn't justify what they did. Hopefully, this sets a precedent which holds publishers accountable for knowingly selling broken products. Yes people can enjoy broken things and still doesn't make it not broken.

[Omnisonne]

Right? I recall them saying the game ''might have a few bugs at launch'' or ''would evolve and grow over time'' stuff like that.
They knew very well the state of the game and the possible backlash, yet went on with it anyway.

Bethesda got no one to blame but themselves.

[TheGamez100]

Whys the game industry so f'd up right now? Ugh these damn AAA companies are letting greed too much into their heads...

[SegaGamer]

Because people allowed them to get away with it for too long. AAA game companies have slowly been treating their customers like idiots for a long time now. Gamers should have been more vocal when things started going downhill instead of brushing it off and/or defending their favourite company.

Don't take this as me just having a go at the consumers, the AAA companies are scummy for pushing things this far in the first place, but these things could have been avoided if gamers caught on early.

Bathesda's horse armour, that was the early sign of what was to come from AAA publishers, and it's gotten much much worse since.

[rainslacker]

Can't say that many people didn't warn them. Sadly though, even if everyone who ignored the warnings on forums heeded them back then, there are still plenty of people who would not care and willing to throw money at publishers.

[Cobra951]

Money-leeching mobile-gaming model took off like a rocket. Whales matter; the rest of us, not so much. (Dollars vote, not users.) Public companies have always chased money as their main goal. But now there's a much easier way to do that than quality games and pretending to care about the userbase.

[BenRoxio]

You're right, those games are very lucrative, we might see most of the big publishers going for that model in the near future.

[CJQNSNYC]

There is no good news out there for this game. How could Obsidain create New Vegas in 18 months out of the assets of Fallout 3 while Bethesda themselves took 3 years to turn out Fallout 76 out of Fallout 4's assets and have such differing results?

It's painfully obvious that 76 was nothing more than a quick, cheap cash grab with VERY little effort put in, marketed in the most misleading and deceptive way possible. They are getting exactly what hey deserve here. Hopefully this will light a fire under them with regards to the quality of their future releases. The days of getting a free pass are over.

[MasterCornholio]

I believe it’s because Obisidian had a much better vision for the game than Bethesda did. Sure Fallout New Vegas had issues at launch plus it used some assets from Fallout 3 however everything else was really well done in the game especially the story. I don’t disagree with a multiplayer Fallout however I do agree that a Singleplayer Fallout game with coop added to it would have been a much better choice than Fallout 76.

[MasterCornholio]

Hopefully consumers win this one. Bethesda did release a broken product.

[Dragonscale]

This snowball is getting bigger and bigger and well deserved tbh. Way to go bethesda lol.

[stormhawk]

They will back down

[Thundercat77]

After years hearing Todd unnecessary giving jabs to Sony (maybe because he is a close friend of Phil Spencer), I couldn't be happier to see all this fiasco exploting on Todd's face.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

But if you paid with a credit card you can easily dispute the charge and the money will be reversed. I work in a hotel and people do pull some shit. They stay then dispute the charge even though they signed in, etc etc. The credit card company still gives them their money back, they protect their clients even though they used the hotel.

[milohighclub]

I think the best thing for gamers right now is this; any developer that forces a review embargo is obviously hiding something so don't buy their games until that's been lifted.

People need to get out of the obsession of buying day one.

People are on this site daily, if there's a game they are hyped about they will know if there's a review embargo, simply hold off an extra day or so to read the reviews. If you're too impatient for that then you're doing yourself an injustice and supporting shoddy practices.
We know things are the way they are in terms of refunds, that's unlikely to change soon so people need to wisen up and practice self-control.

Publishers care about those first week numbers, if they ain't high their gonna discount the game rather quickly. So it's a win-win for the consumer if they hold off.