The Fallout New Vegas Anniversary Bundle is daylight robbery

For the last two years, on October 23, the day that the in-game bombs fell, Bethesda has hosted Fallout Day, with the intention of ‘celebrating the franchise and its community’. In 2024, there was precious little announced beyond a new raid and a free-to-play event for Fallout 76, along with some other minor marketing gubbins, so expectations were naturally low for 2025. Despite rumors circulating about a Fallout 3 Remaster, it would never have been announced so casually on Fallout Day; such announcements are more likely to appear at the Game Awards. 

Instead, fans received just enough to ensure cash would flow in Bethesda’s direction. A new update for Fallout 76 to keep people playing, a limited preview of the game’s premium membership, and a whole lot of opportunities to spend on games you likely already own. Most egregious of these was the announcement of a Fallout New Vegas Anniversary Bundle, which has entered a league of its own when it comes to corporate greed.

✓ VideoGamer Summary

• Bethesda has announced a Fallout New Vegas Anniversary Edition to celebrate the game’s 15th anniversary.
• The Fallout New Vegas Anniversary Bundle is extortionately priced, and in no way can it be considered value for money.
• Bethesda has previously struggled to manage the quality of its merchandise, and that haunts its products years later.
• An unimpressively anemic Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition has also been announced.
• Bethesda’s release of merchandise demeans Fallout New Vegas and cheapens the brand.

$155 for a fifteen-year-old game

The Fallout New Vegas Anniversary Bundle offers a wealth of goodies to entice long-standing fans. Central to this is the statue of Victor, a recurring robotic character and one of the first NPCs you can meet. You also get a pin of the series’ mascot, Vault Boy, some art cards from the opening psychiatric evaluation, a unique box, and a couple of patches. You even get a copy of Fallout New Vegas. So far, so cute. 

However, the Fallout New Vegas Anniversary bundle costs a frankly staggering $155 (£140). It’s an awful lot for a fifteen-year-old game that, when not on sale, costs $20 (£16) if you want all the attached DLC, and as low as $5 (£4) with its usual 75% Steam sale reduction. So an 8-inch PVC statue, art cards, and a fancy box add up to $135 (£124). The box doesn’t even have a disk in it; the bundle just comes with a digital download code. It might have been worth the price if combined with something new, like a Fallout New Vegas Remastered edition, but as it stands, it is parasitically draining fans’ wallets dry because it can.

Bethesda has already struggled with merchandise quality

Bethesda has an unfortunate history with Fallout merch. When Fallout 76 released in 2018, Bethesda offered a Power Armor Edition. With it came a plastic power armor helmet, a map of West Virginia, and what was supposed to be a decent quality canvas bag. However, when bright-eyed players opened their Fallout 76 box, they found that the bag had been swapped for a cheap nylon alternative. Bethesda could claim a canvas shortage and change their copy all they like, but it had already poisoned Fallout 76’s release.

Bethesda quality struck again with the release of a rum based on Nuka Cola Dark to coincide with Fallout 76, selling a bottle for $80 (£60), only for it to arrive late. The advertised cool-looking bottle turned out to be a plastic case around an uninspiring, normal glass bottle. Even worse, the rum supposedly didn’t even taste nice, and you had to remove the plastic casing to get a good pour. You’ve got to hope they’ve improved things for the Fallout New Vegas Anniversary Bundle.

Bethesda, this is the seventh time you’ve shown Fallout 4 to the class

Fallout New Vegas isn’t the only game fans can buy all over again, with Bethesda announcing the Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition. It bundles the base game and all the add-ons together for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on November 10, and for Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026. There’s no official price just yet, but you might be wondering just how this is different from the Fallout 4 Game of the Year Edition.

The Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition includes 150 pieces of Creation Club content, which are small, mod-like additions to the game that can be downloaded or purchased to unlock new weapons, armor, or skins.

The Creation Club is both a mod manager and another means for Bethesda to push paid microtransactions, similar to the Atom shop in Fallout 76, and further extract money in exchange for messing with the game’s design and aesthetics. We should be wary of this continued trend toward monetized mods, especially if we ever see an updated Fallout New Vegas, as that game is still running today mainly due to the efforts of its dedicated modding community.

Bethesda’s consumerism demeans Fallout New Vegas

Outside of the Anniversary Bundles, Bethesda also used Fallout Day to push other merchandise, most eye-catching of all being the Desert Ranger Wearable Battle Helmet. This replica isn’t just any New California Ranger helmet, though; this is a replica of one particular helmet from the Fallout New Vegas Honest Hearts DLC. The helmet was owned by one Randall Clark, also known as the Survivalist, who was part of a hidden story that ran throughout the DLC.

In Honest Hearts, you find many notes and terminals left behind by Randall Clark, who survived the nuclear blasts at the end of the Great War. It was a story of survival in those brutal moments after the apocalypse, but also one of kindness in the worst of times, persevering through tragedy, and protecting those who can’t defend themselves. His final entries, found right by this helmet, are a reflection of his life and hold some of the most beautiful storytelling the game has to offer.

Even the helmet itself is its own story, originally belonging to an RB Vickers, with locations and tally marks starkly contrasting the message ‘Forgive Me Mama’ written on the front. These small stories show the depth of Fallout New Vegas, but Bethesda is more than happy to sell a replica of a helmet that follows multiple tragedies and stories of struggle to you for just $160 (£165). The fact that the shops’ copy speaks of a militaristic bravado utterly alien to the meaning behind the helmet only makes matters worse.

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