BrandWikiReturn

Bethesda Game Studios

Bethesda Game Studios is an American video game developer and a studio of ZeniMax Media based in Rockville, Maryland. It is best known for its action role-playing franchises, including The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Starfield. Bethesda Game Studios opened in 2001 as the development unit of Bethesda Softworks, separating from publishing operations. Todd Howard serves as the studio's executive producer, leading it with managing director Ashley Cheng and studio director Angela Browder. As of November 2023, Bethesda Game Studios had 450 employees.[1]

History

Bethesda Game Studios was established in 2001. Previously, Bethesda Softworks, then a developer and publisher, had been reorganized as a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. ZeniMax's Robert A. Altman sought to grow the development unit, which was spun off from Bethesda Softworks as Bethesda Game Studios, starting out with roughly 40 people.[2][3]

By 2008, Bethesda Game Studios was considered one of the industry's top developers due to the reputation of The Elder Scrolls fantasy universe and the critically acclaimed Fallout 3. Bethesda had created a unique role for itself, “spending years to create massive, open-world, single-player RPGs — hardly a booming genre in the industry at large — to great success, bringing a once-niche PC genre to a broad multiplatform audience,” wrote Gamasutra in its year-end best-of list.[4]

In December 2015, Bethesda Game Studios opened a satellite studio in Montreal under the leadership of Yves Lachance, the former head of Behaviour Interactive.[5] In 2018, two ZeniMaxi-owned studios became part of Bethesda Game Studios: BattleCry Studios was renamed Bethesda Game Studios Austin in March, and Escalation Studios was turned into Bethesda Game Studios Dallas in August.[6][7] Microsoft acquired ZeniMax in March 2021.[8][9]

Unions

All four studios of Bethesda Game Studios have union representation with Communications Workers of America which represent all employees in both the United States and Canada. These are the first "wall to wall" unions within a Microsoft bargaining unit.[10]

241 US employees unionized as "OneBGS" on July 20, 2024. The bargaining unit includes employees at three studios in Austin, Dallas, Texas and Rockville, Maryland.[11] The unit includes artists, developers, and engineers; unlike its parent company ZeniMax, which exclusively represents QA testers.[10][12] The Montreal studio of Bethesda Game Studios was certified on August 13, 2024 with support of Communications Workers of America Canada.[13]

Technology

Satellite studios

Bethesda Game Studios Austin

ZeniMax Media announced the opening of BattleCry Studios in Austin, Texas, on October 3, 2012, with Rich Vogel as its president.[14] The studio immediately began hiring developers with experience in microtransactions and free-to-play games, growing to roughly 35 employees by November 2013.[15][16] It announced its first project, the multiplayer combat game BattleCry, in May 2014.[17] However, the studio laid off a significant portion of its staff in September 2015, followed by the cancellation of BattleCry in October to focus on different projects.[18][19] Among these projects, it was tasked with modifying Bethesda Game Studios's Creation Engine to support multiplayer functionality for Fallout 76, working with another sister studio, id Software, and repurposed some netcode from Quake.[20] BattleCry Studios then assisted Bethesda Game Studios on the game itself and in August 2016 replaced Certain Affinity in assisting id Software to develop multiplayer components for Doom.[21][22] Vogel left BattleCry Studios by September 2017 to join Certain Affinity.[23] In March 2018, BattleCry Studios, now under studio director Doug Mellencamp, was integrated into Bethesda Game Studios and renamed Bethesda Game Studios Austin.[24]

Bethesda Game Studios Dallas

Tom Mustaine, Marc Tardif, and Shawn Green founded Escalation Studios in 2007.[25][26] Mustaine had previously co-founded Ritual Entertainment, while Tardif had been an executive producer and the senior vice president of business development at Gearbox Software.[27][28] In January 2012, the social gaming company 6waves Lolapps (6L) announced its acquisition of the studio on undisclosed terms.[26][29] Mustaine and Tardif became Escalation Studios's design directors, while Green acceded to 6L as its director of engineering.[26] At the time, Escalation had around 30 employees.[30] However, in March 2012, 6L announced it was laying off all of its development staff, keeping Escalation Studios active "in some capacity".[31] The studio spun off from 6L by May 2012.[32] ZeniMax Media then acquired it on February 1, 2017.[25][27] In August 2018, it was integrated with Bethesda Game Studios and renamed Bethesda Game Studios Dallas.[33] It immediately began assisting the studio on Starfield.[34]

Bethesda Game Studios Montreal

Bethesda Game Studios announced the opening of a Montreal, Canada, office on December 9, 2015. At the time of the announcement, the studio employed 40 developers under studio director Yves Lachance.[35][36] Bethesda Game Studios had previously worked with Lachance on several projects while he was at Behaviour Interactive, including Fallout Shelter, which Bethesda Game Studios Montreal immediately took over.[35][37] In June 2024, the studio's developers announced their intent to unionize with support from the Canadian branch of the Communications Workers of America.[38] Lachance left the studio in July to lead WB Games Montréal.[39]

Games developed

Bethesda Game Studios has principally been involved in the development of role-playing video games with its The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series for consoles and personal computers, most of which have been commercially and critically successful.[40][41]

In 2015, the studio entered into the mobile gaming market with Fallout Shelter based on the same franchise, which gained 50 million players by mid-2016. In February 2017, Howard said that it is in development of another mobile title following onto the success of Fallout Shelter.[42] This was revealed in 2018 to be The Elder Scrolls: Blades.

In 2016, Howard confirmed that while it is developing The Elder Scrolls VI, it was still a long way to the game's release. Meanwhile, two other significant projects are in development which are expected to be released prior to The Elder Scrolls VI.[43] On May 30, 2018, Fallout 76 was announced.[44] On June 10, 2018, during Bethesda's E3 2018 conference, the other project in development was revealed to be the company's first new intellectual property in 25 years, Starfield. During the 2021 Xbox/Bethesda Games Showcase, Starfield was announced to be releasing exclusively for PC and Xbox Series X/S. Starfield released on September 6, 2023.[45][46] On June 14, 2022, Howard confirmed that Fallout 5 would start development after the completion of The Elder Scrolls VI, with the latter currently in the pre-production phase of development.[47]

Expansion packs

Awards

  • Gamasutra's Best of 2008 — Top Five Developer[4]
  • 2011 Spike Video Game Awards — Studio of the Year[55]
  • 2015 The Game Awards — Developer of the Year (nominated)[56]

External links

References

  1. Todd Howard Breaks Down His Video Game Career YouTube, November 15, 2023, retrieved November 16, 2023^
  2. Bethesda Joins Xbox – Roundtable YouTube, March 11, 2021, retrieved March 13, 2021^
  3. The History of Bethesda Game Studios - Elder Scrolls / Fallout Documentary June 5, 2018, retrieved November 12, 2018^
  4. Simon Carless, Chris Remo, Christian Nutt, Leigh Alexander, Caoili Eric. Gamasutra's Best Of 2008 December 31, 2008, retrieved 29 December 2020^
  5. Matthew Kato. Bethesda Opens New Studio In Montreal Game Informer, December 9, 2015, retrieved December 10, 2015^
  6. Christopher Dring. BattleCry Studios becomes third Bethesda Game Studios office GamesIndustry.biz, March 9, 2018, retrieved March 9, 2018^
  7. Stefanie Fogel. Escalation Studios Is Now Bethesda Game Studios Dallas Variety, August 10, 2018, retrieved August 10, 2018^
  8. Dina Bass, Jason Schreier. Microsoft to Buy Bethesda for $7.5 Billion to Boost Xbox Bloomberg News, September 21, 2020, retrieved September 21, 2020^
  9. Andy Robinson. Microsoft confirms its Bethesda acquisition is complete and 'some games' will be exclusive Video Games Chronicle, March 9, 2021, retrieved March 9, 2021^
  10. Jay Peters. Bethesda Game Studios workers have unionized The Verge, 2024-07-19, retrieved 2024-07-20^
  11. Nic Reuben. Bethesda Game Studios developers 'ecstatic' to announce a 241-strong 'wall to wall' union Rock, Paper, Shotgun, 2024-07-22, retrieved 2024-08-16^
  12. Tyler Wilde. Bethesda Game Studios developers form 'wall to wall' union that includes artists, designers, and programmers PC Gamer, 2024-07-20, retrieved 2024-07-21^
  13. Bethesda Game Studios Workers Win Labour Board Certification, Officially Join CWA Canada CWA Canada, 2024-08-16, retrieved 2024-08-19^
  14. Alexander Sliwinski. Battlecry Studios is new Austin-based developer from Bethesda Softworks Engadget, October 3, 2012, retrieved September 17, 2016^
  15. Jef Reahard. Bethesda's new Battlecry Studios looking for F2P experts Engadget, October 4, 2012, retrieved September 17, 2016^
  16. Brian Gaar. Gaar: After dry spell, some Austin gaming studios staffing up Austin American-Statesman, November 2, 2013, retrieved August 14, 2023^
  17. Brett Molina. Bethesda unveils free-to-play game 'Battlecry' USA Today, May 28, 2014, retrieved September 17, 2016^
  18. Lani Rosales. BattleCry Studios lays off unknown number of staff in Austin The American Genius, September 10, 2015, retrieved September 17, 2016^
  19. Shaun Prescott. Bethesda has 'concerns' about Battlecry and is 'evaluating' it PC Gamer, October 8, 2015, retrieved September 17, 2016^
  20. Danny O'Dwyer. The Making of Fallout 76 – Noclip Documentary Noclip, June 12, 2018, retrieved June 17, 2018^
  21. Jason Schreier. Bethesda Announces Fallout: 76 Kotaku, May 30, 2018, retrieved May 30, 2018^
  22. Mike Holmes. BattleCry devs now working with id on Doom multiplayer Gamereactor UK, August 6, 2016, retrieved December 19, 2016^
  23. Brendan Sinclair. Rich Vogel joins Certain Affinity GamesIndustry.biz, September 22, 2017, retrieved September 26, 2017^
  24. Christopher Dring. BattleCry Studios becomes third Bethesda Game Studios office GamesIndustry.biz, March 9, 2018, retrieved March 9, 2018^
  25. Jeff Grubb. Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax acquires Doom co-developer Escalation Studios VentureBeat, February 1, 2017, retrieved June 13, 2023^
  26. Robin Wauters. 6waves Lolapps Buys Mobile Games Developer Escalation Studios TechCrunch, January 18, 2012, retrieved August 12, 2018^
  27. Alice O'Connor. Doom helpers Escalation Studios join ZeniMax Rock Paper Shotgun, February 1, 2017, retrieved February 2, 2017^
  28. Katharine Byrne. ZeniMax acquires Doom SnapMap team Escalation Studios MCV/Develop, February 1, 2017, retrieved June 13, 2023^
  29. Tom Curtis. 6waves Lolapps acquires mobile developer Escalation Studios Gamasutra, January 18, 2012, retrieved June 13, 2023^
  30. Dean Takahashi. 6waves Lolapps acquires mobile game maker Escalation Studios VentureBeat, January 18, 2012, retrieved June 13, 2023^
  31. Tom Curtis. 6waves Lolapps lays off dev staff to focus on publishing business Gamasutra, March 19, 2012, retrieved June 13, 2023^
  32. We're back baby! Escalation Studios, May 15, 2012, retrieved August 12, 2018^
  33. Matt Bertz. Escalation Studios Rebranded As Bethesda Game Studios Dallas Game Informer, August 10, 2018, retrieved June 13, 2023^
  34. Tamoor Hussain. Bethesda Has A New Studio And It's Working On Starfield GameSpot, August 10, 2018, retrieved November 17, 2020^
  35. Brendan Sinclair. Bethesda launches Montreal studio GamesIndustry.biz, December 9, 2015, retrieved June 1, 2024^
  36. Bethesda Game Studios sets up shop in Montreal The Gazette, December 9, 2015, retrieved June 1, 2024^
  37. Brendan Sinclair. Behaviour closes Santiago studio GamesIndustry.biz, November 20, 2017, retrieved June 1, 2024^
  38. Chris Kerr. Bethesda Game Studios Montreal workers are trying to unionize Game Developer, June 27, 2024, retrieved June 27, 2024^
  39. James Batchelor. Warner Bros hires Bethesda studio director to lead WB Games Montreal GamesIndustry.biz, July 31, 2024, retrieved July 31, 2024^
  40. Jared Petty. Bethesda Says Two Upcoming Games Are as Big as Skyrim and Fallout IGN, June 14, 2016, retrieved September 2, 2016^
  41. John Davidson. Bethesda's Todd Howard Hints at 3 New Games Glixel, February 18, 2017, retrieved February 18, 2017^
  42. Eddie Makuch. Skyrim Director Teases Next Mobile Game GameSpot, February 17, 2017, retrieved February 17, 2017^
  43. Andy Chalk. The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development, Todd Howard confirms PC Gamer, June 14, 2016, retrieved April 30, 2018^
  44. Jason Schreier. Bethesda Announces Fallout: 76 Kotaku, May 30, 2018, retrieved June 5, 2018^
  45. Eddie Makuch. Starfield Release Date Set For November 11, 2022 As Exclusive To Xbox And PC GameSpot, June 13, 2021, retrieved June 13, 2021^
  46. Rich Stanton. Of course Starfield is delayed—what did you expect? PC Gamer, May 12, 2022, retrieved June 12, 2022^
  47. Joe Skrebels. Todd Howard Confirms Fallout 5 Is Coming After Elder Scrolls 6 IGN, 2022-06-14, retrieved 2022-06-14^
  48. Wes Fenlon. The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a free-to-play RPG coming to PC and mobile this fall PC Gamer, June 11, 2018, retrieved June 12, 2018^
  49. Tom Ivan. Bethesda has surprise launched The Elder Scrolls: Castles Video Games Chronicle, September 29, 2023, retrieved October 13, 2023^
  50. Alex Stedman. A New Elder Scrolls Mobile Game Just Dropped, and It Looks a Lot Like Fallout Shelter IGN, 2023-09-28, retrieved 2025-04-14^
  51. The Pitt Fallout 76, retrieved 2023-01-04^
  52. Steel Reign Fallout 76, retrieved 2023-01-04^
  53. Steel Dawn Fallout 76, retrieved 2023-01-04^
  54. Wastelanders Fallout 76, retrieved 2023-01-04^
  55. SpikeTV Video Game Awards 2011 Spike (TV network), retrieved October 22, 2016^
  56. Nominees The Game Awards, Ola Balola, November 12, 2015, retrieved November 13, 2015^