Xbox Game Studios now has a couple of the world’s biggest RPGs in its portfolio, all thanks to Bethesda Game Studios and the goliath franchises it’s been nurturing since its inception in 1986 — The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. We’re looking at the studio’s early history, projects, and latest news to discern where it ranks within the growing roster of Xbox Game Studios. Bethesda Game Studios OverviewIt’s incredible to think that there was once a time where The Elder Scrolls and Fallout didn’t exist, before they were even a thought in the minds-eye of developers. Of course, now both franchises command a level of respect from the rest of the industry due to the incredible stories and worlds within them, and that is in part thanks to Christopher Weaver, who created Bethesda Softworks as a division of Media Technology from his home in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1986 (interestingly, Courtney Cox briefly worked at Bethesda Softworks in the 1980s). Bethesda Softworks developed and published various titles while under the wing of Media Technology, such as The Terminator, The Elder Scrolls: Arena, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, and more.With Bethesda Softworks doing well, Christopher Weaver and Robert A. Altman formed ZeniMax Media in 1999 as a holding company. In July of the same year, ZeniMax Media acquired Media Technology, and as a result, Bethesda Softworks became a division of ZeniMax. Fast forward to 2001, and Bethesda Game Studios was established as a development division, with Bethesda Softworks having moved into a publishing role.Under the creative leadership of Todd Howard, and with around 40 developers at the start, Bethesda Game Studios doubled down on its efforts to immerse players in the fantasy worlds it had become known for. Following on from Bethesda Softwork’s The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall in 1996, Bethesda Game Studios launched The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind in 2002 for Xbox and Windows PC — the first time the series would launch on a console. The game was a critical and commercial success, picking up a Game of the Year award and pushing Bethesda Game Studios’ reputation to new heights. Immediately after the launch of Morrowind, the studio spent the next three years working on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion — the team also helped work on 2004’s IHRA Drag Racing during this time — which was released in 2006, once again to incredible success. After there were complaints that The Elder Scrolls II: Morrowind’s NPC behaviour was on the simplistic side, Bethesda Game Studios developed the Radiant AI system for Oblivion. This system is designed to allows NPCs to make decisions instead of following a scripted route, giving the world a more realistic feeling. Between the game’s dynamic NPCs, impressive visuals, and easy gameplay mechanics, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion won over fans and critics alike.Things took a slight turn for Bethesda Game Studios in 2007 when Bethesda Softworks acquired the rights to Fallout from Interplay Entertainment. For the first time since the studio’s inception, the team had to lay down its swords in favour of guns. Its expertise in creating vast open worlds and deep role-playing gameplay would be paramount in the creation of Fallout 3. The game was released in 2008, and instead of transporting players to fantasy worlds filled with magic and legendary heroes, they were instead thrust into a post-apocalyptic wasteland with mutated creatures and death. As was expected from the studio by then, Fallout 3 had a ridiculously successful launch and picked up multiple Game of the Year awards along the way, as well as selling 5 million copies in its first week, completely out-selling Oblivion by a considerable amount.With the Fallout series now firmly lodged in the minds of players, the studio returned to its roots, and this time, apparently, Todd Howard wanted to direct a game that would never go away. Yes, we’re talking about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which launched in 2011 but has seen fresh releases as recently as 2021. For ten years players have been exploring the Nord’s homeland of Skyrim, and while it initially launched on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has since seen re-releases on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. In fact, the game has been launched so many times, that Bethesda actually created a parody release in 2018 titled Skyrim: Very Special Edition for the Amazon Alexa. On the Alexa store page, the description read: “Bethesda Game Studios is proud to present Skyrim… for Alexa. Yes, that’s right, the version of Skyrim you never saw coming has finally arrived on the platform you never asked for.” The last time Bethesda discussed Skyrim’s total sales was in 2016 with the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, which Todd Howard said was around 30 million copies — 2021 saw the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition for the game’s tenth anniversary, so figures could be well past that now.With Skyrim out in the world (forever) Bethesda Game Studios refocused its attention on the post-apocalyptic Fallout series. The studio released two games into the series in 2015: Fallout Shelter and Fallout 4. The former game is a free-to-play simulation game that has players building and managing their own vault. It was initially released for iOS and Android devices, but then followed up with releases on Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, and even Tesla vehicles — Bethesda loves releasing games on strange platforms, it seems. While Fallout Shelter didn’t quite meet the critical acclaim that its larger-budgeted AAA siblings did, the game still received mostly positive reviews and earned itself the ‘Best Mobile Game’ award at the 33rd Golden Joystick Awards and the ‘Mobile Game of the Year’ award at the 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards — Hell, estimates put the free-to-play game’s lifetime earnings at over $100 million, so it’s without a doubt a successful entry into the series.The second game of 2015 was a much beefier entry compared to Fallout Shelter — Fallout 4 shot out of Bethesda Game Studios’ door like a hurricane, shipping 12 million copies within the first 24 hours of its launch, grossing around $750 million. It was a success from the start, claiming a dragon’s hoard of accolades throughout 2015, including numerous Game of the Year awards. Fallout 4 also marked the first entry into the series where the protagonist was fully voice acted, and featured many real-life Boston landmarks like Bunker Hill, Fort Independence, and Old North Bridge. In 2017, Bethesda’s Pete Hines said: “Fallout 4 has gotta be the most successful game we’ve ever launched in our company’s history. More than Skyrim, in terms of what we did.” — Later clarifying that he was talking about copies sold, and that Fallout 4 had indeed outsold Skyrim over the same period of time.Aside from the releases of Skyrim VR and Fallout 4 VR in 2017 — both of which are exactly the same as their standard variants, except with virtual reality functionality — the next big release from Bethesda Game Studios came in 2018 by way of Fallout 76, which was the studio’s first attempt at a multiplayer game, and which was built within a modified version of the Creation Engine that has powered many of Bethesda’s previous games. While this modified version was supposed to add additional details and depth to the world, the reality was a host of technical issues that aided in a bumpy launch for Fallout 76. Many critics criticised the game’s technical performance, as well as a lack of gameplay purpose and an absence of human NPCs, among other things. Much like ZeniMax Online Studios’ launch of The Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76’s initial release was a rocky road indeed, but after many updates, DLC packs, and continuous support, Fallout 76 now has a healthy community of players — in fact, Bethesda has recently said that it’s working on a five-year roadmap for the game. “It’s not how you launch, it’s what it becomes,” Todd Howard told IGN in 2019. “It’s really turned around. It’s a fabulous game with an incredible community.”The final release from Bethesda, which wasn’t another Skyrim edition, was The Elder Scrolls: Blades; an action-RPG spin-off for Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch. Blades was by all accounts, a critical failure, with the Switch version going on to receive the tenth worst Metacritic score (42) of all games released in 2020. The lack of critical appeal didn’t stop the game from being a commercial success, though. Within the first week of release, The Elder Scrolls: Blades had been downloaded by a million users on the iOS platform alone and raked in close to $500,000 in revenue. Bethesda Game Studios’ previous project — The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary EditionThe Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim celebrated its tenth birthday in 2021, and as such, Bethesda Game Studios once again released Skyrim into the world, this time as an Anniversary Edition. While this edition contains the Special Edition of the game — which adds a whole host of quality improvements, mod support, and the game’s four DLC packs — it also comes bundled with Xbox Series X|S optimisations, a new fishing mechanic, and over 500 community-created Creation Club items such as new quests, dungeons, and cosmetic items. It’s quite the package, and the fact that Bethesda felt it was financially viable to launch a whole new bundle only highlights just how popular The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim remains — that’s three console generations Skyrim has launched on now, giving Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V a run for its money.Bethesda Game Studios’ future project — Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VIStarfieldStarfield is Bethesda Game Studios’ next big release, coming on November 11th, 2022. The amount of buzz that has surrounded this game since its trailer and release date were revealed during the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase 2021 is a testament to the studio’s ability to craft extraordinary worlds. Starfield is a game about space exploration, offering players a chance to explore a part of our solar system known as the “Settled Systems.’ It takes place in the year 2330 when two rival factions known as The United Colonies and the Freestar Collective have ushered in a time of uneasy peace. We’ll be working for an organisation called Constellation, which is “committed to uncovering the secrets of the galaxy,” according to Starfield design director, Emil Pagliarulo. While uncovering secrets does sound fairly relaxing, the threat of attack from mercenaries, pirates, and spacers is very real. The Elder Scrolls VIWhat do we know about The Elder Scrolls VI? Well, we definitely know that it’s in the early stages of development and that it’ll be built using Bethesda Game Studios’ new Creation Engine 2, the same as Starfield. Other than that, though, details are ridiculously scarce, understandably so considering it could be years before we see it launch. In an interview with IGN last year, Todd Howard did say: “There are a number of parts of Skyrim where we don’t go deep enough, where it’s a veneer in terms of its interactivity,” he says “When we think about games and what we would want to do going forward, it’s okay… whatever that system is… how deep can we make it? The other thing is how AI and NPCs interact with you. That’s something I think we still have a long way to go with.”How does Bethesda Game Studios rank?Bethesda Game Studios has a robust history of games that not only elevate the series they belong to, but also the entire genre. While titles such as The Elder Scrolls: Blades and Fallout 76 weigh the studio down ever so slightly when we think about critical reception, its mainline entries have had absolutely no problems with hoarding accolades. The likes of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Fallout 4 have each earned multiple Game of the Year awards. Bearing that in mind, we believe Bethesda Game Studios is easily operating to an A ran standard. The studio has shown us time and time again that it can not only create incredible worlds inside The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises but that it can also adapt and build upon each new entry. There have been a few stumbles along the way when the team has stepped out of its comfort zone a little, so we’ll be looking forward to seeing how it handles a beast like Starfield.A TierAA studio with a fantastic portfolio, and the talent to impress furtherBut that’s just what we think, and we would love to know what ranking you would give Bethesda Game Studios. Let us know your thoughts by dropping a comment below and dropping a vote in the poll!How would you rank Bethesda Game Studios?
S — A world-class studio executing at an exceptional level
A — A studio with a fantastic portfolio, and the talent to impress further
B — A studio capable of greatness, but has more to offer
C — An up-and-coming studio, or one struggling to realise its potential
We’ve had 16 responses.