Bethesda and Microsoft have teamed together for a brand new bundle for the Xbox One featuring Fallout 4. It features a 1TB Xbox One game console, a copy of Fallout 4, a free digital copy of Fallout 3, a wireless 3.5mm headset, and a card with a redeemable 14-day free trial of Xbox Live Gold all for $399.99.
The news went up over on the official Major Nelson website where it looks like it got a major facelift to accommodate the big news about the Fallout 4 bundle being made available for the Xbox One.
This marks yet another new bundle for the Xbox One that follows on other bundles they have planned for the holiday season, including the Halo 5: Guardians bundle and the Madden NFL 16 bundle. They also have a pretty cool Forza Motorsport 6 bundle with that neat Xbox One console that has car engine sounds when you turn it on and turn it off.
One thing that I notice that Phil Spencer does quite a bit now that he's in charge of the Xbox brand is make bundle packs for as many different high-profile AAA games as possible. This is a great way to appeal the console to specific demographics and markets who enjoy certain kinds of games. Targeting the Fallout 4 audience is pretty much guaranteed to get some decent hits.
Microsoft also managed to strike a deal with Bethesda and have Fallout 4 PC mods appear on the Xbox One in early 2016. This sort of thing could be huge for the Xbox One because gives it a lot more appeal as far as modding is concerned. This is also one of the rare times where user-made mods are being officially sanctioned by the console manufacturer as a feature for the game. It's a little out of character for Microsoft because it's essentially allowing gamers to get a hold of free DLC. Once you get the mods there's no real reason to buy DLC unless it adds a substantial amount of content to the game. However, the upside is that modding adds a massive tail-end to the game.
Sony won't be left out of the loop when it comes to mods, though. The PS4 will have mods available in Fallout 4 as well, but it will arrive later into 2016 after the Xbox One gets the mods.
Bethesda has been doing a bang-up job promoting the upcoming action-RPG, and the fact that it was only announced during this year's E3 made it that much more intense because instead of having a year or two to promote the game, they only had half a year to do actual promotion.
However, given the short span from announcement to release and the fact that Fallout 4 had been in continuous discussion on the forum boards and gaming communities across the web, the game basically promoted itself. All Bethesda had to do was roll with the hype that the community built for it. And now it appears if Microsoft is trying to roll with the hype as well with their own bundle pack.
Whether or not this will be enough to blast the sales up to or past the PS4 remains to be seen but no one can ever say that Microsoft isn't trying.
