It’s no secret that Fallout 76 divided opinion and probably hasn’t sold quite as well as Bethesda might have wanted it to. A recent promotion from GameStop Germany certainly suggests that some retailers are struggling to shift copies of the much-maligned online adventure.
A post appeared on Reddit last night (via Dualshockers) which shows a poster displayed in one of the game retailers German locations, which apparently reads “get Fallout 76 for free when buying a used PS4 controller.” Yikes.
Fallout 76 launched November 14, 2018 as a full priced game. That’s three months ago, so the fact you can already pick it up for the price of a used controller isn’t the best sign.
If there’s any silver lining to this situation, it’s that (hopefully) the cheaper the game gets, the more people play it, and the more the true potential of Fallout 76 can be realised.
Sales for the game came around fairly swiftly after launch. A quick glance on Amazon shows you can already pick it up for a little over £25 on PS4.
In my own review of the game, I noted that it was unfortunately a bit of a mess, but that it’s an interesting idea with a ton of potential. I still believe Bethesda can realise that potential with enough work – just look at No Man’s Sky.
Some of the more cynical commenters on the Reddit thread have suggested that free is still too high a price for Fallout 76. I personally reckon that’s a bit unfair. Don’t get me wrong, it is currently a bad game, but it’s not that bad.
In other Fallout 76 related news, Bethesda recently had to come out and deny rumours that the game was going free to play, which definitely would have cheesed off those that did pay full price for it.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.