It’s a Pip Boy. You put your smartphone in it.
Anyone wanting to score a real wrist-mounted Pip-Boy with smartphone as part of the limited edition Fallout 4 package first announced at E3 better get used to searching the used market. That’s because the factory that makes them literally can’t make any more, according to Bethesda Marketing Vice President Pete Hines.
Hines told GameSpot that the company has been trying to make as many of the limited editions as it could, capitalizing on demand that caused the first two waves of shipments to sell out at major retailers almost immediately. The problem, it seems, is that the factories producing the plastic cases are absolutely out of capacity.
“We got to a point where we would go back to the factories and they were like, ‘Guys, this is it, sorry. This is as long as we can run the lines and make as many as we can,'” Hines told GameSpot . “We would go back to [the factories] and say, ‘The demand for this is insane, we need to make more.’ And they would move other projects or move stuff to other factories and it just came about [them telling Bethesda], ‘Final answer: sorry, this is as many as we can make.’ And we sold them all we could.”
Of course, that justification only makes sense if those factories are limited in time Fallout 4‘s Nov. 10 release. There’s nothing stopping Bethesda from requesting more Pip-Boy units after launch if they want. However, that would ruin the ideal of the “limited edition” launch promotion, and it certainly doesn’t seem to be in the cards; “No more are made” Hines wrote on Twitter last month. So if you’re looking to get your hands on one right now, you’d better keep your eyes on eBay and other resellers.
To update: This article originally stated that the last shipments are currently on store shelves. They were actually sent to retailers a month ago and are almost certainly gone now. Ars regrets the mistake.