Unfortunately, Bethesda is not the first major developer to fail to meet consumer expectations, nor is it the first to mishandle the situation. If challenged, Bethesda may be able to mount a defence along the lines of: "what did you expect from buying a Bethesda game?" Historically, this focused on video-game violence, which gives important context on how the industry has kept itself so deregulated. When controversy erupted around the topic in the 1990s, most corporations were happy to ignore the moral panic, confident in research showing that there was no link between real-world violence and game violence. The industry survives on its consumer reputation, with companies generally wanting to foster, and subsequently weaponise, good reputational capital in order to compete.