Now Gamers Are Mad At Bethesda Over Fallout Rum Bottles

Nuka Dark
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Bethesda hasn't been able to catch a break from all the negative press surrounding Fallout 76, likely because gamers haven't been able to catch a break from getting the short end of the stick when it comes to anything Fallout 76 related. The latest issue that has people fuming is actually over Fallout rum bottles... yes, rum bottles.

There's a recap of the events leading up to the current fiasco involving these rum bottles over on ComicBook, where the site details how Bethesda introduced Nuka Dark back in September. Gamers could pre-order the rum back when Fallout 76 was available for pre-order. When Bethesda finally began shipping out the rum to those who pre-ordered the case, gamers found out that the Nuka Dark actually wasn't coming in a high-quality glass bottle.

Now, there's actually a glass bottle that the rum comes in, which is a standard beer bottle. The bottle is then encased in another bottle, which is the iconic looking Nuka Dark bottle.

So what's the issue?

Well, the $80 package had many gamers assuming that the Nuka Dark encasing would still be glass, except it's not in a glass encasement. The encasement is actually in a plastic bottle, which rubbed some of the rum purchasers the wrong way.

Many fans were none too pleased with the cheap plastic bottles after they arrived on the doorstep. In one tweet, a non-fan pointed out that the Nuka Dark rum case was purchased as a birthday present for their dad, who was a huge Fallout fan. However, once the case arrived and they discovered that the Nuka bottles were just cheap plastic, they wanted to return the case.

What was really a blow to Bethesda's endeavors was that GamesNosh pointed out that it was possible to get your hands on actual Nuka Cola bottles complete with a glass design, a red bottle cap, and a retro faded label from over on Etsy. But it gets even worse. The Etsy Nuka Cola bottles are available for only £30.90, which is around $40 USD. So basically, you can get the actual Nuka Cola glass bottles for half the price of what you would pay to get the Nuka Dark rum that comes with the cheap plastic bottles.

A lot of the people who had paid $80 for the case were greatly disappointed in the product when it finally arrived, especially after the shipping was delayed by over a month, in some cases. So why was it delayed by over a month? Well, there's a tweet from Holly Green stating that the delay was due to Bethesda wanting to "refine" the packaging. I'm not sure if this relates to the box, the bottles, or the plastic exteriors.

This is just another long line of issues that has plagued the launch of Fallout 76. Originally Bethesda was caught in a row over replacing the canvas bag with a nylon bag in the Power Armor Edition of the game, and then later the company got blasted for exposing personal user details due to a bug in the support system, and now Bethesda is dealing with blowback over cheap plastic bottles.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.