Bethesda: Our Factories Simply Cannot Make Any More Pip-Boys

[EternallyBored]

Managing stocks is something I have to do every day and it really isn't an easy thing to do at all. So I can't fault them for this.

That said, it's still a decision you make to only sell these items for a limited time only. If they decided to offer these things for a longer period of time, they could easily have the factories continue production, or even turn it up a notch to meet the demand.

What? Are they made out of some kind of rare materials? No, it's plastic. This is to generate more hype for when they do come out with more. How obnoxious.

It's not easy at all, they likely aren't doing it to generate hype, not purposely anyway. It doesn't matter what materials its made of if the manufacturer they hired doesn't have the time to make another production run.

Bethesda does not own the factory, they aren't Mattel or Hasbro that actually owns the facilities to make these kinds of plastic products. They do not get to dictate how long or how many of these things the factory makes outside of the agreed upon amount and time frame in their original contract. The factory doesn't just sit idle when they are done making the specified amount, they begin retooling to fill another order, Bethesda either needs to buy another run, which may not be available due to whoever their manufacturer is having other clients or having a stricter schedule to meet orders, or they need to pay another manufacturer to do an entirely separate production run in a different facility. Depending on the rules, this may require another investment to rebuild the injection molds if they can't transfer them.

If this were a larger company with its own production facilities then maybe it would be that easy, or if it were a product for regular sale over a long period of time like the amiibos or skylander figurines, but for a limited run collector's item that's just bundled in with the actual product the company is trying to sell, no, they don't get to just turn the machines on and make more whenever they want. They pay out to a third party company to make the product, and then when that company fulfills its contract, they insert different machinery to fill their next order.

 

[truckspond]

Your best bet if you still want that glorified phone holder is to check at your local participating store a few days after launch to see if there are any unclaimed collector's editions.

 

[elvor0]

What annoys me is the development spent on this and not spent on making Fallout 4.

The Pip-boy app, must actually be made by BGS (Bethesda Game Studios, the developer), the apps functionality is part of the games full developement schedule. A very limited and finite amount of time.

I wonder what planned features will be cut when time runs out, that's what BS (Bethesda Softworks, the publisher) always do. No delays to actually finish and polish BGS games.

The game will be worse because this app exists. Features that may have been added, may be forever unfinished. Bugs never fixed, even added by this app.

The pip boy app is......the pause menu. Ta da! How much development time do you think was necessary for them to make it touch screen compatible, exactly?

 

[Dragonzeanse]

Good thing I pre-ordered!

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, guys. I didn't personally add to your load because a Smartphone device isn't really what I wanted. Pipboy is more of a personal organizing tablet, really, somewhere between Kindle, health monitor, time keeper, radio receiver/player, and maybe a few more things. Now, granted, a smartphone probably could be apped for that and more, but the reason you ran out of stock is because people love the icon. You know how people misuse the term 'iconic'? You look at the Pipboy and THAT is the iconic post-apocalyptic wasteland device, as recognizable as Mad Max's Interceptor or Ash William's Boomstick.

Additional: I have a custom-built laser rifle, one of only a few made before Bethesda told him to stop. Luck-10: "Ice cream.".

 

[Vault101]

suffer in your regret muahahahah1!!! 1

[I/]I do not need things to validate my liking for a thing...I do not need things to validate my liking for a thing!![/I]

I suppose it's only fair since you live on a continent filled with murder-animals.

..and albino warlords

No, I don't blame the factory, I blame Bethesda for not ordering a larger production run in the first place.

this is a collectors edition though, those kinds of things wouldn't need such a large production run...

What irks me is the fact that this game isn't even out yet. How are we expected to ever improve industry standards and how they treat us customers, when we repeatedly prove all they need to do is dangle some shiny toys in our face and then our wallets open up and they can have all our money, no questions asked.

people who buy thease things know its a financial risk, but they're willing to because they were probably getting the game anyway

I would actually like more insight into the psychology of merchandise, its something that seems to also go hand in hand with "geekdom" in recent years (I would assume its the demographic coming to an age where they have the disposable income mixed with the popularity of "geek" properties ect ect)

anyway there is something about merch that makes the brain happy, about adorning ourselves and our surroundings with the symbols of the property's we love

personally I've come to be wary of this level of consumerism...as I said the oriny being Fallout might have been the exception due to my like of the series and its aesthetic

 

[Something Amyss]

this is a collectors edition though, those kinds of things wouldn't need such a large production run...

"Collector's Edition" doesn't necessarily mean "limited." The rate at which it sold out still indicates there's an issue.

people who buy thease things know its a financial risk, but they're willing to because they were probably getting the game anyway

Maybe some, but if I've learned anything since I've signed up here, it's that Michael Bay is right: people will buy it anyway. Even games like Watch_&*#Dogs, with the bullshots controversy or similar known issues will see people preorder and and then complain. About known issues.

I'm betting that if there is ANYTHING wrong with the game, we'll see complaints from preorder people, and I'd be shocked if they didn't. Because we've pretty much seen this every other time. People will complain, buy anyway, then complain more.

 

[EternallyBored]

this is a collectors edition though, those kinds of things wouldn't need such a large production run...

"Collector's Edition" doesn't necessarily mean "limited." The rate at which it sold out still indicates there's an issue.

It's only really an issue if Bethesda could have/should have reasonably been expected to predict the collector's edition popularity. Collector's editions are still usually limited in the sense that, for popular releases, if you don't buy one within the first week or two, you likely won't be able to find one outside of eBay, and the company doesn't produce any after release, I've run into plenty of collector's editions that are difficult to find, it used to be even harder, we've kind of had our expectations warped by AAA companies that flood the market with collector's editions of the latest EA, Activision, or Ubisoft game, or "digital deluxe" editions that are effectively infinite. The collector's editions for company's outside of the big 3 tend to be much more limited, I had a bear of a time trying to get a hold of a collector's edition of Dark Souls II when I tried to pre-order a few months before the games release. This is especially true for games that have large collectors editions or come with specialized stuff, like that Pip-boy, things like the Borderlands 2 loot chest or the giant statue for Titanfall were indeed very limited runs.

While Collector's edition doesn't necessarily mean "limited", I find it is reasonable to expect it to be fairly limited for any release that isn't being published by the triumvirate of EA, Activision, or Ubisoft.

As for Bethesda, if they are telling the truth, this particular collector's edition has eclipsed every expectation from their previous sales of collector's editions of their games. It would be unreasonable to expect them to anticipate something like that since they went up for sale right after the games announcement and lacked the time to respond to the unexpected popularity of their little custom phone cases. We can argue that that was a bad idea and that they should have announced the game earlier in order to gauge customer reaction and give them more time to respond to demand for the collector's edition, but personally I prefer Bethesda's close release schedule to other companies that announce games a year or more away. I'll take a 6 month turn around from announcement to release over extra time to produce what amounts to a plastic wrist-mounted smart phone case.

 

[Lightknight]

Folks, sounds like it's time to purchase a 3D printer, draft up your own non-copywritten design of an oversized cell-phone-holding-bracelet. If you use one of those $350 micro printers properly you could probably make your money back in three sales: http://store.printm3d.com/

Haha, I kid but I'm also sadly considering it...

 

[Something Amyss]

It's only really an issue if Bethesda could have/should have reasonably been expected to predict the collector's edition popularity. Collector's editions are still usually limited in the sense that, for popular releases, if you don't buy one within the first week or two, you likely won't be able to find one outside of eBay, and the company doesn't produce any after release

I usually buy my collector's editions after launch without issue.

 

[EternallyBored]

It's only really an issue if Bethesda could have/should have reasonably been expected to predict the collector's edition popularity. Collector's editions are still usually limited in the sense that, for popular releases, if you don't buy one within the first week or two, you likely won't be able to find one outside of eBay, and the company doesn't produce any after release

I usually buy my collector's editions after launch without issue.

That's a bit non-specific, I've been able to buy some without issue, but others have been very limited, especially ones that come with those statues or other large plastic doodads, and especially ones from smaller publishers like Bethesda, I remember having similar issues with Skyrim, they eventually did another run of those Alduin statues closer to release, but there were quite a few months leading up to launch where the CE of Skyrim was impossible to get a hold of.

While it is not unreasonable to hope for an adequate supply of collector's editions, neither should it be expected that they won't be limited. It kind of comes down to Bethesda, they say demand was higher than all previous projections and any previous game they've made. Which looking at the numbers, makes sense, as Fallout 4 is shaping up to be Bethesda's best selling (or at least best pre-ordered) game by an order of magnitude, even compared to the behemoth that was Skyrim. Unfortunately, Bethesda aren't backed by massive publishing companies that can more easily get big orders through custom manufacturers.

They may get another run in closer to release, or release them as an online store item down the line if demand is high enough, just because they can't make more now doesn't mean they can't have another run down the line. I just can't fault Bethesda for not predicting that a wrist-mounted smart phone case would be so much more popular than anything they've sold before in their collector's editions.

 

[KayeFaye]

suffer in your regret muahahahah1!!! 1

[I/]I do not need things to validate my liking for a thing...I do not need things to validate my liking for a thing!![/I]

I suppose it's only fair since you live on a continent filled with murder-animals.

..and albino warlords

No, I don't blame the factory, I blame Bethesda for not ordering a larger production run in the first place.

this is a collectors edition though, those kinds of things wouldn't need such a large production run...

What irks me is the fact that this game isn't even out yet. How are we expected to ever improve industry standards and how they treat us customers, when we repeatedly prove all they need to do is dangle some shiny toys in our face and then our wallets open up and they can have all our money, no questions asked.

people who buy thease things know its a financial risk, but they're willing to because they were probably getting the game anyway

I would actually like more insight into the psychology of merchandise, its something that seems to also go hand in hand with "geekdom" in recent years (I would assume its the demographic coming to an age where they have the disposable income mixed with the popularity of "geek" properties ect ect)

anyway there is something about merch that makes the brain happy, about adorning ourselves and our surroundings with the symbols of the property's we love

personally I've come to be wary of this level of consumerism...as I said the oriny being Fallout might have been the exception due to my like of the series and its aesthetic

I honestly have no problem with merchandise. I have no problem with special editions. I have a problem with the many negative things that pre-order culture has brought with it. My wife & I got some admittedly worthless plastic crap lying around, hell on the topic of Fallout I got a Vault-Boy bobblehead and one of the few collectors editions I own is of New Vegas (I'm also a poker geek, and the cards actually have some nice art on 'em) but I'm just at a point where I wish we could bat down pre-order culture because it HAS brought a lot of bad things with it and hearing that a game has sold so many fucking copies that it has sold out its special edition A MONTH AFTER IT WAS ANNOUNCED is absolutely INSANE. Now, I'll give Kudos to Bethesda in that they haven't pulled any of the shit some other companies have, and they aren't locking any content up and telling you that you have to pre-order to get it, but at the same time other companies that like to wring customers are going to see how well Bethesda is doing with the Pipboy edition and get right on doubling their efforts. I don't want "Special Collectors Edition" to become "The reason why games cost double what they used to if you wanted the full goddamn product," especially considering that's already where we are with the way DLC is handled.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Wha?
"Limited Edition" and "Collector's " mean THE SAME DAMN THING in marketing.
They're indistinguishable in practice because the purpose of attaching "collector/limited" to something is to pressure customers into committing on the spot by making it appear scarce.

Remember the Beanie Baby fad? Same logic.

Though it's arguably worse for video games, because while crap like beanie babies and commemorative junk (plates, spoons, shot glasses...) are essentially fungible because they're sold year round, games only get one "Pre-order season" of relevancy (read: hype) which rapidly decays after release.

 

[Dragonlayer]

I guess the fact that it's not Fallout 4 that factories can't keep producing is slightly comforting....

With how much of a step in the wrong direction the game is shaping up to be, I'm not sure that's very comforting either.

Speak for yourself, I think it looks fantastic and can't wait for the opportunity to build my own settlement and drag it into a pointless and bloody war of attrition with radscorpions.

 

[Naqel]

Speak for yourself, I think it looks fantastic and can't wait for the opportunity to build my own settlement and drag it into a pointless and bloody war of attrition with radscorpions.

The beauty of modding is that I was able to do it for years now, without being restricted to: "Nice", "Mean", "Repeat" and "Leave", for dialogue options.

 

[TristanBelmont]

Oh yeah. I totally deserve probation for calling out a scalper. Thanks a bunch mods :3

 

[Bat Vader]

Oh yeah. I totally deserve probation for calling out a scalper. Thanks a bunch mods :3

You didn't really call me out since I already stated my intentions of what I was going to do.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Speak for yourself, I think it looks fantastic and can't wait for the opportunity to build my own settlement and drag it into a pointless and bloody war of attrition with radscorpions.

The beauty of modding is that I was able to do it for years now, without being restricted to: "Nice", "Mean", "Repeat" and "Leave", for dialogue options.

To be fair, once you stripped away the length of individual sentences dialogue in 3 and New Vegas amounted to wordy versions of "Nice", "Mean", "Repeat/elaborate" and "Leave".

 

[TristanBelmont]

Oh yeah. I totally deserve probation for calling out a scalper. Thanks a bunch mods :3

You didn't really call me out since I already stated my intentions of what I was going to do.

Sorry, wrong term. Couldn't see through the seething red mist that came from being nagged by the mods. My teeth gritting, memories of how my father was killed by a mod, etc.