Ben Hanson interviews Bruce Nesmith about his long career at Bethesda Softworks:

Skyrim’s Lead Designer On Starfield’s Origins And Bethesda's Evolution - MinnMax Interview

00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:21 - The stability of Bethesda Softworks
00:06:38 - Bethesda's recent growth and changes
00:09:33 - Fallout 76 and Todd Howard
00:19:38 - Why developers lose focus on what gamers want
00:23:03 - Thoughts on Baldur's Gate 3
00:27:50 - Why Bruce left Bethesda
00:32:23 - The reaction to Starfield's release
00:35:24 - Designing Starfield's limited exploration
00:39:16 - The origins of Starfield
00:44:25 - Choosing to retire after Microsoft's acquisition
00:45:58 - Writing his Loki Redeemed novel trilogy
00:51:39 - Thoughts on tabletop design
00:52:40 - Making D&D games for TSR in the 1980s
01:01:49 - Hired at Bethesda
01:06:54 - Working with Todd Howard in 1995
01:08:55 - Returning to Bethesda for Oblivion
01:10:17 - Choosing the next region for The Elder Scrolls series
01:13:05 - Bruce's impact on The Elder Scrolls VI
01:15:26 - The downsides of long game development
01:19:53 - Can you pivot in development after a game like Cyberpunk releases?
01:22:38 - The most influential RPGs in Bruce's life
01:23:57 - The impact of Skyrim
01:25:13 - How The Elder Scrolls II almost destroyed Bethesda
01:29:29 - The downfall of 10th Planet, Bethesda's first space game
01:38:19 - Conclusions from Bruce

Thanks Couchpotato!

Pete Hines, Head of Publishing, will leave Bethesda after 24 years - here's the tweet.

Bethesda announced their games would migrate to Steam and their launcher would end this year.

SUNSETTING THE BETHESDA.NET LAUNCHER & MIGRATING TO STEAM

We’re saying goodbye to the Bethesda.net Launcher this year. Starting in early April you’ll be able to migrate your games and Wallet to your Steam account. For more details on what this process will look like, read on.

We’re saying goodbye to the Bethesda.net Launcher this year. We would like to thank you for your support and assure you that all of your games are safe. If you’re not playing PC games through the Bethesda.net launcher then your work is done here. Thanks for reading! If you do have games through the Bethesda.net launcher, don’t worry. Starting in early April you’ll be able to migrate your games and Wallet to your Steam account. For more details on what this process will look like, read on.

You have plenty of time to plan and begin migrating your Bethesda.net library to your Steam account. The migration to Steam will include your game library and Wallet – meaning you will not lose anything from your Bethesda.net account. Many games will also have their saves migrated, with a few requiring some manual transfers. For games that require it, you will still use your Bethesda.net login to sign in to play. Your Bethesda.net account will not be lost and will still be accessible on our website and in-game, and we will continue supporting all Bethesda.net accounts with our future titles.

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Todd Howard talked to IGN and discussed why it was now or never for Starfield and how the next Elder Scrolls will have more depth.

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In describing what he would change about Skyrim, Howard hinted at the future direction of the series. "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. [...] 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."

Ultimately, the success of Elder Scrolls Online and the overall health of the franchise gave Bethesda the confidence to focus on Starfield, Howard said. "[E]verything takes longer than we'd like as well, but we want to make sure we get it right. Hopefully Elder Scrolls 6 — you don't want to say that it's worth that kind of wait — but it does stand up to the series as it has been in a really big, impactful way when it comes out."

[...]

The Bethesda acquisition has been approved. It is now confirmed that some games will be exclusive to PC and XBOX.

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Officially Welcoming Bethesda to Team Xbox

by Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox • Mar 9, 2021 @ 6:30am

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Publisher of iconic gaming franchises will expand Xbox’s diverse portfolio on Xbox Game Pass

This is an exciting day for Xbox. Today we officially complete the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks. It’s an honor to welcome the eight incredibly talented development studios – Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios – and their passionate global communities to the Xbox family. Now that everything is official, we can begin working together to deliver more great games to everyone. At every step building toward this moment, I’ve been inspired and motivated by the creativity, insight, and community-first approach of the talented people at Bethesda. Our goal is to give these teams the best foundation for doing their greatest work and to learn from them as we continue to build Xbox into an inclusive platform for all players.

This is the next step in building an industry-leading first party studios team, a commitment we have to our Xbox community. With the addition of the Bethesda creative teams, gamers should know that Xbox consoles, PC, and Game Pass will be the best place to experience new Bethesda games, including some new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players.

As we shared previously, it’s vitally important that Bethesda continues making games the way it always has. We look forward to empowering Bethesda’s creative teams to reach even more players around the world, helping make future Bethesda titles the biggest and most popular games in their history. Xbox and Bethesda have long shared a common vision for the future of gaming. Both as fans and as creators, Bethesda understands the potential of Xbox Game Pass.

We would also like to honor the life and memory of my close friend Robert A. Altman, founder of ZeniMax Media. Robert believed deeply in the power of gaming and we are privileged to be able to continue his work by joining forces with the teams he built and led for many years.  I will miss the opportunity to work directly with him on the future of our combined teams but I know that his spirit will live on in the shared work we do and motivate us to make this partnership all he envisioned.

Thank you to all our players for joining us on this incredible journey and to the millions of Bethesda fans around the world. Now that we’re one team, we can start working together on the future ahead. We will have more to share about what’s next for our teams later this year. In the meantime, to properly celebrate this special moment, we are bringing additional Bethesda games into Xbox Game Pass later this week. Stay tuned for more details!

Todd Howard has addressed the question of exclusivity for their next generation games in an interview with Games Industry.

But it's the potential for the rest of ZeniMax's IP that is perhaps most intriguing. Franchises like Prey and Dishonored are both understood to be on hold having struggled to meet sales expectations -- despite critical acclaim for their most recent outings. But Game Pass is about delivering a variety of content that people want, not just raw sales. Even id Software co-founder John Carmack commented at the time that the deal may lead to the revival of older franchises.

Howard certainly sees an opportunity: "Game Pass and things like it allow titles to be successful where the economics of the business, and having to sell things at retail to sell X amount of copies... That works against some games. Just like in other avenues -- let's take television or movies. Certain types of comedies or big budget dramas went away. TV went to the cheapest thing they could make for a long time, reality television, which I could equate to a free-to-play match-three game. What brings eyeballs? What's cheap? Right, let's get it out.

[...]

Despite the many entry points to the Xbox ecosystem, there are still concerns that all future Bethesda titles will be restricted to channels the Microsoft controls. Xbox boss Phil Spencer said at the time that Bethesda's games continuing to be multiformat will be judged "on a case-by-case basis" -- and Howard reiterates that the details of the deal are still being finalised. When it comes to such releases, he says, "We haven't gone through all of that, to be honest."

"We do view it, and always have by ourselves, on a case-by-case basis," he says. "We'll do that as part of Microsoft as well. They've been pretty open on other platforms and not just within Xbox. This is an outside perspective, but if you go back ten years at Microsoft, you wouldn't expect them to have a full Office suite on an iPhone either.

"I can't really project where things will be except to say we've done those sort of exercises ourselves as an independent. If you look at every Elder Scrolls game, there has been some exclusivity on Xbox or with Microsoft. We've partnered with every game. Morrowind was basically a console exclusive, Oblivion was a long timed exclusive, Skyrim's DLC was exclusive for a long period of time. We'll decide what makes the best sense for our audience when the time comes, and I can't really project today what that looks like."

Thanks Farflame!

GOG has announced that Bethesda Softworks games are up to 75% off on GOG. The sale coincides with the release of the Dishonored series and two Wolfenstein games to GOG.

Series like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Quake - Bethesda Softworks has them all. Latest Special Sale on GOG.COM is dedicated to games published by the famous studio, with cult titles up to 75% off. Let’s see some of the best deals:

Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition (-70%) is an RPG in which every decision counts. Use your strength and guile to make yourself a name in a post-apo metropolis

Quake 4 (-70%) is an FPS game in which you take the war into the alien world, using a whole arsenal of weapons and the aid of elite marine squad.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Game of the Year Edition Deluxe (-70%) is a fantasy RPG title with the vast world to explore and around 100 hours of freeform gameplay.

Today we also added the Dishonored series (up to -75%) and two Wolfenstein games (-70%) to our DRM-free catalog. Enjoy!

Special Sale featuring Bethesda games will last on GOG.COM until 24th February 2020, 2 PM UTC.

IGN interviewed Todd Howard about all things Bethesda.

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Longtime Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard joins us to discuss his Hall of Fame career, from the Terminator first-person shooter that got him started to the incredible success of The Elder Scrolls series to the acquisition of the Fallout IP to his new sci-fi project, Starfield.

Thanks Couchpotato!

Congratulations Bethesda! - I played all of their games:

Celebrate 25 Years of The Elder Scrolls

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AltChar reports on a fallout style countdown timer on Amazon that unlocks december this year.

Well, as much as this may surprise some players, it looks like Bethesda are actually working on another Fallout game. The leak to support this claim comes from Twitter user Wario64 who found Bethesda placeholders on Amazon with a Fallout-style countdown timer video.

The three placeholders are set for three platforms - PC, Xbox One and PlayStation and they currently have 31 December 2019 placeholder date. There are also standard, deluxe and collector's editions listed under every platform along with a $60 price tag which is, again, Amazon's placeholder info.

[...]

Escapist Magazine has an editorial on how Bethesda killed Fallout.

Let’s make one thing clear: I didn’t bemoan the lack of an option to kill children in Bethesda’s Fallout games, but those who did had a point. The original Fallout games were dark. Dark as fuck. Just downright bleak. Yes, they were full of jabs at mid-century American bombast, but those jabs landed with a dry chuckle and left a bitter aftertaste. The joke, they seemed to say, was ultimately on you, sitting in America, enjoying the fruits of that bombast. It took apart Manifest Destiny by showing the inevitable end result, leaving you to draw your own conclusions about whether or not we’re the good guys.

Bethesda’s Fallout, instead, hears the whispers of hubris inherent in Fallout’s lessons of post-World War II Americana and amplifies those whispers to a shout, drowning out the lesson or insight within them. Bethesda’s Fallout’s jabs at mid-century Americana aren’t at the expense of those of us who grew up in it, but rather those who don’t buy into it. And they aren’t subtle jabs so much as graceless haymakers, landing with a guffaw and a wave of nausea. In Fallout, the atomic-fueled techno-consumerism of the late 21st Century is both setting and antagonist. The world “before” was both awesome and terrible. Its masters beneficent and cruel. In attempting to solve humanity’s problem through science, they ultimately created new ones, amplified the old ones, and almost exterminated humanity in the process. In Bethesda’s Fallout, you can not only pick up where the 21st Century left off, but you can try most of its failed experiments over again, and purchase the fruits of those once-doomed dalliances in stores. In real life.

[...]

TweakTown explains why they feel Bethesda breaks their own games and what they can do about it.

With its Creation Club updates, Bethesda broke many script extenders needed to run some of the best Fallout 4 and Skyrim: Special Edition mods (FOSE and SKSE), thereby breaking many mods in general. Anyone who uses mods will tell you it can be a nightmare at times. Mods need to be updated to ensure compatibility not only with each other, but their respective extenders and parents, and every new update seemed to break something else.

This happened many times and ultimately forced mod-makers to adapt and try to stay ahead of the curve, and gave Bethesda a nefarious bent: the publisher who used to wish goodwill upon modders was now seen as a maddeningly confused overseer unwittingly messing everything up because it wants to make more money. It felt like Bethesda was intentionally breaking its own games to push people towards buying things they had once enjoyed for free.

And this sentiment hasn't changed. If anything it's gotten worse.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Bethesda have posted a note to their fans on the eve of Fallout 76's beta releasing.

A Note to Our Fans

As a development studio, we’ve taken a lot of journeys. We’ve tried not to repeat ourselves, yet all our games have a similar DNA. In 2015, we decided to try something very new, and very scary for us – take one of our worlds and make it online only.

[...]

Gamingbolt reported on what Bethesda had to say to Metro about potential new Wolfenstein and Dishonored games.

The interviewer also inquired about the Dishonored series and how it is said to be “resting.” However, Hines is of the perspective that the developers just want to work on different projects, so it certainly is a possibility that we’ll be seeing more of this series in the future. Hines stated, “Ah, I wouldn’t read too much into that. Look, Arkane has two studios, they’re working on a number of things. That’s no different than Todd Howard saying, ‘I’m gonna make a Fallout game and then I’m gonna make Starfield before I go back to TES6’. He didn’t say I’m never making another… there’s like, ‘We have an idea for another thing here, we have an idea for another there’.”

[...]

@Eurogamer Lucky Day shared this news about Bethesda blocking a 'new' resale of The Evil Within 2.

Overnight Polygon posted a report about Bethesda threatening an individual with legal action for selling a sealed copy of The Evil Within 2 on Amazon Marketplace.

The legal firm acting on Bethesda's behalf - a company called Vorys - took issue with an individual's labelling of The Evil Within 2 as "new", insisting the individual, a man called Ryan Hupp, was not an authorised reseller and therefore his selling a "new" copy was unlawful.

It seemed like an overreaction by Bethesda, so I asked Pete Hines, senior vice president of marketing and communications, about the issue at QuakeCon 2018 today.

"He's not trying to sell a secondhand game, he's trying to sell a new game," he told me. "He was listing the product as if it was new. All we're saying is if it's a previously owned product, you have to sell it as a previously owned product - you cannot represent it's new because we have no way to verify what you're selling actually is new.

[...]

Bethesda games are currently discounted on Steam from 40 to 75% off. RockPaperShotgun reports on whats going on at Quakecon.

The frags will flow like Bawls this weekend at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, where Id Software are throwing their annual LAN party/convention, QuakeCon. Thousands of gib-hungry gremlins will lug their computers to Texas and many more will loiter around the festivities. It’s become more ZenCon in recent years, featuring more from corporate siblings Bethesda and other studios and games owned by ZeniMax Media, but will have a good kick of Id this year with our first look at Doom Eternal, the sequel somehow not named Doom II: Hell On Earth. Before all that, loads of Id and Bethesda games are cheap on sale, including yer Quakes, yer Dooms, yer Fallouts, and yer Preys.

[...]

Thanks rjshae!

@OnlySP Bethesda say they need to change their approach to single player.

Although Bethesda Softworks continues to be one of the greatest proponents of single-player games in the AAA arena, the publisher believes it needs to adapt its approach to such projects.

Speaking to The Guardian recently, Bethesda’s senior vice-president of PR and marketing Pete Hines first reiterated that the publisher remains dedicated to the format, saying “it’s part of who we are, and we still think there’s room to be successful.”

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

The Guardian interviewed Pete Hines and Todd Howard about the future of Bethesda.

Bethesda is revered for these gigantic worlds that set out a banquet of options for the player. But from Fortnite to League of Legends, many of the most popular and profitable games around in 2018 are competitive multiplayer games, which has led to speculation about the future of the expensive single-player experience that Bethesda is known for. This year’s Fallout 76 is an online game that throws people together to cooperate or clash – not the lone player experience fans expect.

Nonetheless, Hines is bullish about the future of epic single-player adventures. “Well, we keep doing it,” he says. “There was a lot of hand-wringing around [2017’s] Prey, but we just announced a huge update. Rage 2 is a giant single-player game, [the next Doom game] Doom Eternal is single-player, and Wolfenstein: Young Blood is single-player. Single-player is still a thing; it might continue to grow or evolve, but it’s part of who we are, and we still think there’s room to be successful. That doesn’t mean that we should keep doing things the way we did five or 10 years ago – we’ve got to continue to change how we approach it.”

Howard acknowledges players’ fears about the diminishing prominence of single-player games. “It’s understandable. That would be my fear too,” he says.
[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Eurogamer talked to Todd Howard about Starfield.

What, then, does Starfield being next-generation mean?

"That to us means two things," Todd Howard told me. "It does mean hardware and it does mean software on our side, and it also means gameplay - what does the next generation of epic single-player RPGs feel like to us?

"What systems we put it out on - what's the hardware requirements - is still to be determined. We're pushing it; we're thinking very, very far in future so we're building something that will handle next-generation hardware. That's what we're building on right now, that's where our mind is, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't exist on the current systems as well."

Todd Howard specified Starfield was a single-player game but will it be a Bethesda Game Studios game in the way Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are?

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Todd Howard has been interviewed by Gamestar. A translation was provided on Reddit by DRocMusic.

Q: Based on your new experience with multiplayer games, would multiplayer be something for Elder Scrolls 6 or Fallout 5? 

A: For those games we want to keep them as single player games. That is what our focus is going to be. If they have some social aspect we haven't designed yet, we'll see. But we treat them each as their own thing. 

Q: There are 3 studios working on Fallout 76. How do you keep them connected and working together in a way that Bethesda Games Studios keeps it's own identity?  

A: It's tricky. You are right, there are 3 studios. And then there are other developers under Zenimax and id software helping us out. To answer your question: The studio in Montreal has been around a long time. Since Fallout 4. 

The studio in Austin, the old Battlecry Studio, started working with us right when we finished Fallout 4. So we've been working with them for three years now. We had some issues in the beginning in how we handle communication and I'll admit it was hard at first, but now we are in a good place. Everybody has worked together for a while. The way we communicate, each studio is still slightly different, each have their own vibe but everyone is pushing in the same direction.

[...]

Q: You've been using more or less the same engine for years. What about Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6? 

A: I think a lot of people, who are not making games dont understand what the word "engine" stands for. 

They think the engine is this one thing, we view it as technology. There's a lot of different pieces and for every game, parts of that change. For example the renderer, the AI, the animations, the script language and so on. 

Some people talk about Gamebryo but we haven't used that in a decade. A lot of our engine contains a lot of middleware like Havoc. For Fallout 76 we have changed a lot. The game uses a new renderer, a new lighting system and a new system for the landscape generation. For Starfield even more of it changes. And for Elder Scrolls 6, out there on the horizon even more. 

We like our editor. It allows us to create worlds really fast and the modders know it really well. There are some elementary ways we create our games and that will continue because that lets us be efficient and we think it works best.

@TMZ Bethesda Softworks have alleged that Warner Brothers have stolen code for use in the Westworld game.

Warner Bros. got in bed with a tech company that jacked codes in order to fast-track and produce its "Westworld" mobile app ... so claims another company in a new lawsuit.

The gaming company, Bethesda Softworks, is suing the media giant and Behaviour Interactive and, in the suit, says Behaviour stole its designs, artwork and codes ... and used them in the "Westworld" game.

[...]

@Gamewatcher Bethesda has tweeted an image that teases something Fallout related.

UPDATE #1: Sadly the new announcement will have nothing to do with Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire developer Obsidian, as they tweeted the following:

ORIGINAL STORY: Bethesda Game Studios, the publisher's internal development team and the creators of Fallout 3 & 4 and the Elder Scrolls series, are teasing an announcement - which seems to be Fallout-related.

You can check out the tweet below, which is an animated gif that shows the 'Please Stand By' television screen from the US around 1950s - which would strongly indicate that this announcement is Fallout, as that's the same time period. It's also the same kind of quirky nostalgic humour as the Fallout series. Oh yes... and Bethesda's Fallout titles also used this exact animation as a loading screen.

[...]

Thanks WolfGrimDark!

See our forum thread here.

Bethesda have teased a picture of a rocket on Twitter.

pic.twitter.com/PC6fBW5BNO

— Bethesda (@bethesda) May 10, 2018

Gamerant reports that Bethesda will have a good variety of games at E3.

In a meeting with Dualshockers, Pete Hines revealed that it is currently a hectic time at Bethesda, as the studio continues to prepare for E3. However, he feels very confident and excited about what is in store for players, emphasizing that Bethesda’s E3 lineup is diverse and will appeal to many gamers.

“I couldn’t give you any guesses as to what we’re going to announce and when those games will be out. But I will say, we have a lot of new stuff to talk about at E3. Whether or not folks realize it, this is the hell on Earth time for us with E3. We are in the midst of so much planning and work for all of that content but I’m really excited.

I think we have a lot of stuff that folks are going to like. To my earlier comment, it’s going to be a big mix of stuff that’s all over the place. It’s not going to be like all [one] kind of game or genre. It’s going to be a lot of stuff in a lot of different areas and hopefully, there’s something in there for everybody.”

[...]

JuiceHead thinks that Bethesda will reveal a new game at E3. He is basing this on a recent Todd Howard interview with AIAS Game Maker's Notebook.

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Today we take a look at an interview Tood Howard recently gave on The AIAS Game Maker's Notebook, a podcast that has talked to various different devs of larger games. During the interview they talk about Fallout 4 mods and Skyrim SE mods, but also the bigger picture of Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls 6. There is mention of new games being complete leading me to believe the rumored Starfield or another new IP will be announced at this E3.

@PCGamesN Bethesda Softworks have opened a third studio in Austin, Texas.

Bethesda have a new development studio in Austin, Texas. BattleCry Studios will become Bethesda Game Studios Austin, expanding the company’s in-house development offerings with a third office.

 

The other two Bethesda Game Studios locations in Rockville, Maryland and Montreal, Quebec have worked primarily on mainline Elder Scrolls and Fallout titles, with related games like Elder Scrolls Online being handled by other studios within parent company ZeniMax. A number of job listings at the Austin studio are already up citing “strong familiarity with Bethesda Game Studios games” as a desirable point, so it seems safe to assume they’ll be working within a similar formula.

[...]

Gamerant reported on a question put to Pete Hines about when to expect the next Elder Scrolls title.

Responding to questions about the release date of the next Elder Scrolls title, Pete Hines, the vice president of Bethesda Softworks, has reconfirmed that the studio’s development team has two major games planned before the release of the Elder Scrolls 6.

Hines first stated as much during an interview at E3 in June of last year, when he was asked by the interviewer about Bethesda’s plans for the Elder Scrolls series. He responded to the question by stating that the next Elder Scrolls was not yet in development, as Bethesda had two major titles in development that would release before the studio set to work on the next entry in the Elder Scrolls series.
[...]

@TechRaptor Bethesda may possibly be working on a Game of Thrones game.

First noticed by "That Damn Kid" on NeoGaf, Target currently has a listing up simply labeled "Bethesda: Game of Thrones." To add a little fuel to the fire, we do know that Bethesda currently has two unnamed, large-scale products in the works.

There have been surprisingly few Game of Thrones-related games over the years since the show began, so it would be no surprise to see one get off the ground now, especially with the show on its penultimate season. And with the season finale of that season airing tomorrow, there may be an official announcement coming in the future if this is a real game.

[...]

ShoddyCast offer six suggestions on how Bethesda can make their next open-world game a mediocre RPG.

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Josh comes out of a month long Storyteller-induced internet stupor to talk about Bethesda Game Studios, and what most of us DON'T want to see from their next open-world game. Their secret project may not have "Elder Scrolls" or "Fallout" in the title, but they can certainly learn from their past releases.

Facebook | http://Facebook.com/ShoddyCast
Twitter | http://twitter.com/ShoddyCast
Twitch | https://www.twitch.tv/shoddycast

PC Gamer reports that some modders like Bethesda's new creation club:

Top Fallout 4 and Skyrim modders weigh in on Bethesda's Creation Club

How Bethesda's paid mods program differs from Steam's, and why three top modders like it.

The Creation Club was Bethesda’s most contentious E3 announcement. A follow-up to Valve’s failed paid mods program, the Creation Club will allow third-party developers, including modders, to create sanctioned add-on content for Fallout 4 and Skyrim: Special Edition. This content will be sold through in-game marketplaces for Creation Club Credits, which can be purchased via Steam.

The short version is that it’s paid mods. Bethesda insists that the Club isn’t paid mods, but it is. Crucially, it’s also a dramatically improved version of paid mods. Many questions remain unanswered, but we do know that Bethesda will screen applicants, curate Club content and optimize everything themselves to prevent conflict between mods. Club content must also be original, meaning existing mods won’t suddenly cost money. Perhaps most importantly, Bethesda says “there will still be plenty of free mods as well.”

Assuming Bethesda follows through on these rules, the Club could actually be a positive development for modding. It’s not perfect; as our own Chris Livingston wrote, Club content would be better off free, with the store itself acting as a way to promote the best mods and compensate talented modders. In any case, it is a rare opportunity for modders to profit off their passion.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

PC Gamer's opinion about Bethesda's Creation Club:

It's great that Bethesda wants to pay modders, but Creation Club mods should still be free

Bethesda doesn't need to charge for mods—they've been passively profiting from them for years.

Here we go again! Bethesda taking another stab at paid mods—despite saying that Creation Club isn't paid mods. It is, though. There will be new mods you'll have to pay for to use. But there's also been more thought put into Creation Club than the dreadful and half-baked Steam paid mod system from back in 2015. While the last attempt generated anger over the thought of paying for mods and fear that such a system will destroy the modding community, Creation Club itself isn't anything to be too worried about. In fact, with one small change, it could be a great system.

Creation Club, which was announced during E3, is an improvement over the 2015 attempt on Steam in almost every respect. Bethesda is hiring modders to create new content for Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition, and charging players to use it. It won't monetize any existing mods—everything in the Club will be something new, Bethesda says. Been using free mods? You can keep using them, and if Bethesda keeps its word, you won't see a monetized version of an existing mod with new features show up for sale.

Creation Club is also a curated system, unlike the Wild West of Steam's disastrous attempt, which was a chaotic come-one come-all invitation that led to people uploading and attempting to sell previously free mods, or mods that weren't theirs, or mods that used code or assets from other mods without permission. Bethesda says it will be vetting each mod through an application and approval process, which will (we hope) mean no one can just sneak in with something they didn't entirely make themselves.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

@RockPaperShotgun Bethesda has announced Creation Club, an alternative to paid mods.

In among the game announcements at E3 2017 Bethesda also announced Creation Club, “a collection of new game content for Skyrim and Fallout 4.” That content includes new weapons, armour, crafting and housing features, and changes to core systems, and you buy all of it in-game with ‘credits’ purchased for real money through Steam. Is this a new paid mods system? No, says the FAQ, “Mods will remain a free and open system where anyone can create and share what they’d like.”

Here’s the Creation Club trailer:

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[...]

Ken Rolston told Gamasutra what makes Bethesda unique about game designers:

Ken Rolston speaks to the strengths of Bethesda's game dev culture

[...]

According to Rolston, Bethesda is unique among game devs in a variety of ways: it's an established studio with lots of long-time staffers, approachable tools, and a culture that champions fun over perfection.

"Bethsoft is about not making polish. And I don't mean that in any way negative; there's a level of jazz to what's going on, rather than classical music coming from a script. If it isn't clean but it's fun, we can understand it."

"And you have ownership!" Rolston later interjected. "You can break things and fix things very quickly, and then have somebody make them better. So when you own something that somebody can make a little bit better really quickly, you have that relationship with those people working with you."

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Polygon interviewed Todd Howard who has been inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame recently:

Tomorrow night, Bethesda's Todd Howard will be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. It's a fitting honor for a developer who has steered two of the most esteemed game series, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

His most recent work — Skyrim (2011) and Fallout 4 (2015) — are highly regarded role-playing explorations of a fantasy world of dragons, and a post-apocalyptic zone of decay and dastardly conspiracies. Both were critical and commercial successes.

Skyrim particularly seemed to catch its moment. While RPGs were once a niche entertainment for relatively small numbers of adherents, Bethesda's dragon-slaying magical exploration game punched through to the mainstream media, and meme status.

He says the game's high profile success caught him by surprise. "I don't know how it happened," he says. “We could feel it when it crossed over to being referenced on television or other places. It's nothing we could ever plan for. It just kind of happened.

"Certain things came together. People's mood, timing, vibe, marketing, all of it. But it happened very quickly, almost as soon as the game was out."

Howard believes the elevated status of RPGs is due to the fact that so many games now borrow some of that genre's fundamentals such as NPC interactions, exploration, character upgrades and strong story. But the big breakthrough comes from freedom of movement.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Glixel reports that Bethesda Softworks is working on three new projects:

Bethesda has three new projects in the works

Two of them are "classically" Bethesda.

[...]

Todd Howard:

"We've got a good number of projects on the go," he said. "We're bigger now and we do want to be putting out more stuff. We have two larger projects that are more classically the scale of what we do, but even bigger. We overlap the projects so we're working on them at the same time, but they're staggered," he teased. "I can't talk a lot about them, but I can say that they're bigger than anything we've ever done. They're a bit different, but definitely in the wheelhouse that people are used to from us."

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

PCGamesN reports that the owner of the largest mod site for Skyrim and Fallout mods Nexus tries to prevent mod stealing:

After more than a month of inaction on Bethesda's part, the owner of the largest site for Skyrim and Fallout mods has taken matters into their own hands to prevent people stealing user creations.

[...]

"There is no reason consoles should not be allowed to have mods, provided the PC modding community is appropriately protected and not dumbed down or negatively affected in any way," Scott wrote in a 5,100-word epic. "However, in order for the mods to be available on consoles, PC mod authors would need to upload their mods, as a separate entry, to Bethesda.net’s system."

This lead, unsurprisingly, to people taking the best mods from Nexus and ripping them wholesale onto Bethesda's system with no attribution, often taunting the original creator in the description.

This is soul crushing for mod authors. To see their hard work being taken, without their permission, often times by people actually openly goading, trolling and mocking the mod authors about the theft and that nothing was being done about it," Scott says. "It became clear, early on, that Bethesda had not planned for the eventuality of mods being stolen. They had no clear moderation system in place. No way of quickly dealing with the issue or indeed any sort of decent reporting system so that users could report stolen mods in detail to the (seemingly non-existent) moderation team."

[...]

Rather than wait for Bethesda to improve their response times to reporting mods stolen or implement an effective moderation strategy, Scott has decided to add an extra permissions system to his own site so stolen mods are easier to see.

"We already have an extensive permissions system for mods, but today we’ve released an addition to that system for console modding," he says. "You can now choose from a set of options in our Fallout 4 section to express your wishes. These are:

• I have uploaded my mods to Bethesda.net and they are available for console users.
• I have not uploaded my mods to Bethesda.net for console users yet, but I will at some point.
• My mods will not be available on Bethesda.net for console users.
• My mods won’t work on consoles or would not be acceptable on Bethesda.net according to their rules.
• I give my permission for someone else to port my mods to console and for it to be uploaded to Bethesda.net by someone else. Please credit me, however."

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

One of the most (or least?) surprising announcements from this year's E3 is that Todd Howard has confirmed that an Elder Scrolls 6 is in the works.  It's likely to be in the fairly distant future.

Thanks, Couch!

On YouTube's Live at E3 stream, the head of Bethesda Game Studios reconfirmed that Bethesda is working on three new projects, but we now know that Elder Scrolls 6 is one of them, and likely the last:

"[Elder Scrolls 6 is] kind of like the elephant in the room, always, when we talk about anything," Howard explained, "and you know, I think it's good in these moments to tell our fans yes, of course we are [working on it] - it's something we love - but it is... you know, I have to be careful what I say, it's a very long way off.

"I could sit here and explain the game to you, and you would say, 'That sounds like you don't even have the technology. How long is that going to take?' So it is something that's going to take a lot of time, what he have in mind for that game, and we actually have two other large projects we're also doing that are bigger than everything we've done. People will probably hear about those even before Elder Scrolls 6. That'll make sense many years from now.

"We think very long term. We're not a developer that's going to rush something like this out," he continued. "When you think about what is the future of that kind of game, we have a pretty good idea of what that's going to be, and it's just going to take technology and time we don't necessarily have right now."

When asked what the other two projects might be, Howard was cagey, but invoked Fallout 4's notably short time between announcement and release:

"I don't want to say yet, but people should know by now that the gap between hearing about it and it coming out, I like that to be really short. They're all a ways off, and we'll talk about it when we talk about it."

At last night's Bethesda Showcase event, Howard confirmed that an Elder Scrolls 5 remaster, titled Skyrim Special Edition, will be coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC on October 28. The game will be free for PC owners who already own the original game and all its DLC.

Chris Avellone has been brought on to write for the reboot of Bethesda's Prey.

It's not clear yet if the Prey reboot Arkane Studios and Bethesda Softworks announced at E3 this year falls into our scope of coverage or not, but there's at least one tidbit about it we should cover for the sake of our audience. Industry veteran Chris Avellone, who left Obsidian last year to pursue freelancing, is working on the title in some writing capacity, as announced by the man himself on Twitter. Apparently it was the folks at Arkane Studios that reached to Avellone first too, rather than the other way around, but the man isn't involved in a lead position:

@ChrisAvellone To this day, you're still my favorite writer in the industry. Are you able to say if you're the lead writer on nuPrey or not?

No - the amazing @RicardoBare and @rafcolantonio came to me w/ the story, and I was like, "fuck yes, I'd love to help."

As a piece of trivia, Kotaku's Jason Schreier (who has one of the best track records in the industry for this kind of coverage) wrote an article in 2013 claiming Obsidian Entertainment worked on Prey 2 after it left Human Head's hands. It's possible that this might make Avellone more familiar with the universe and help him while writing on the title, though we can't currently know if he ever worked on the project while it was briefly passed to Obsidian, and whether the current Prey reboot shares any element with the title that Bethesda quietly cancelled.

Consider the rumours confirmed as Bethesda Game Studios Director Todd Howard confirmed that Skyrim will be remastered for pcs and next-gen consoles. For pcs it is a free upgrade if you own all dlc. Additionally Fallout 4 addons were announced as well as a big update for Fallout Shelter.

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Watch as Bethesda Game Studios' Game Director Todd Howard shares the latest content for Fallout 4 and Fallout Shelter, PLUS the official announcement of Skyrim Special Edition.

At the BE3 Showcase, Bethesda Game Studios revealed three more add-ons, with the first Contraptions Workshop available on June 14th. Get the full scoop on Contraptions Workshop, Vault-Tec Workshop and their final add-on, Nuka-World.

Also from the Wasteland, Bethesda Game Studios is working on big changes for Fallout Shelter. Update 1.6 will introduce Quests to Fallout Shelter, with an all-new combat system, new characters, enemies, and locations to explore. Plus, the surprise announcement that Fallout Shelter is coming to PC. Both Quests and Fallout Shelter for PC will arrive in July.

Finally, one of the most beloved games of the last generation (and all-time), Skyrim Special Edition, brings the epic fantasy to life in stunning, remastered detail , with all the official add-ons included. Skyrim Special Edition will release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 28th 2016 , and will support full PC Mods on console.

Some Mod authors are complaining to Bethesda that their mods are being used without their permission. Bethesda is recommending mod creators file a DMCA takedown notice which goes against how the mod community usually deals with such issues.

How to officially file a complaint notice if all or part of your Mod is uploaded to Bethesda.net without your permission

gstaff
gstaff Employee Jun 6, 2016 5:39 PM

A number of you have reported instances of users uploading Mod content that allegedly does not belong to the Mod creator. We take these reports seriously and want to protect copyright holders and authors of the Mod content shared on Bethesda.net.

In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we request that anyone who believes their content was wrongfully uploaded to Bethesda.net formally submit a DMCA takedown request. Please Note: These reports should only come from mod authors and other copyright holders who believe their content was stolen.

To report these DMCA violations, please follow the steps from Section 17 of our Terms & Service and send requests -- completed as detailed below -- to our email address copyrightabuse@zenimax.com. In order to make this process smoother, we will be working on ways to streamline this process.

[...]

Following GStaff's recent post on reporting stolen content we seriously need more answers than a token lawyer's response to a legitimate community concern. Is more information going to be posted soon about what Bethesda hope to do about this serious situation, or was that response all we're going to get?

I ask because it seemingly sets an awful precedent, and seemingly reverses well over 14 years of commonly accepted (and strictly enforced, I'll add) etiquette within "your" very own community.

The inherent problem is in the first two lines:

A number of you have reported instances of users uploading Mod content that allegedly does not belong to the Mod creator. We take these reports seriously and want to protect copyright holders and authors of the Mod content shared on Bethesda.net.

In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we request that anyone who believes their content was wrongfully uploaded to Bethesda.net formally submit a DMCA takedown request. Please Note: These reports should only come from mod authors and other copyright holders who believe their content was stolen.

The first line talks about users (many of whom are not the original authors) reporting stolen content, and that you take these reports seriously. That's good, that's how it should be. The second line talks about mod authors using DMCA reports to report stolen content.

The first line is about community enforcement; where the community has come together to report to you that content has been stolen, against a mod author's express and written permissions. In these instances, you're expected to analyse the reports yourself, confirm that content has indeed been stolen and act accordingly to remove said content and reprimand the violator. You by no means need to be as strict as the Nexus in terms of reprimanding the violator. How you discipline is your prerogative, of course. But the key point is, the community (not just the wronged mod author) reports the content to you, and you handle it in a timely manner.

The second line presents a major caveat, removing the community element from your reporting system and relying on the original mod author/copyright holder being made aware of their content being stolen and jumping through legal hoops to have their work removed. This is a major difference from the system mentioned above and is a serious break away from what the community has stood for and has come to expect.

I won't even go in to how disappointing it is that an official mod distribution platform can be created without serious consideration for how it'll be moderated.

Because the post from GStaff was obviously written by a lawyer type who couldn't give a rats arse about this community, what it's stood for and how it's operated these past 14 years, I wanted to see if we could get some actual answers and try to understand if this is the only way Bethesda are going to deal with stolen content, or whether this a stop-gap measure until you can bring your moderation tools up to scratch (and my god, do they need to be brought up to scratch). If DMCA reports are the only reports you're going to action. That's bad. That's really bad. The inherent problem is that GStaff's post didn't mention anything other than using DMCA to report stolen files. So here are the key questions before everyone loses their marbles and goes (more) mental at you:

• Are DMCA reports going to be the only method for reporting stolen content? If yes, why?
• If no, what plans have you got in the pipe-work to help rectify this issue, both on the front-end for people reporting the content, and on the backend to bring Bethesda.net in to the 21st century/the digital age where your moderation is much closer to being global, rather than working on US Eastern office hours, 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday? Your site is global, your community is global, your moderation should be global too!
• Is there any point in people using the current report system on Bethesda.net to report stolen content when the stolen content isn't theirs to begin with?
• Please can we have an update on what measures are being taken to help improve the moderation on the site?

Todd Howard was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at GDC:

He might’ve been at it for 22 years, but Todd Howard is only getting started. The Game Director of Fallout 4, Howard has provided his clear vision on an impressive roster of titles as a creative director, designer and executive producer at Bethesda. With three consecutive “Game of the Year” titles (The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim), Howard can now add another award to Bethesda Game Studios’ trophy case: the Lifetime Achievement Award.

At the 16th Annual Game Developer’s Choice Awards, Howard will be formally recognized by his peers for his contributions as a pioneer in open-word gameplay. “The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series present gamers with fully realized worlds filled with vast landscapes, and mystery at every corner. We’re proud to honor the visionary developer for his leadership in creating these universes,” said Meggan Scavio, General Manager of all GDC events. “When you’re completely captivated by these detailed worlds, it’s easy to forget the level of dedicated work and creativity that went into every square inch. This award reflects on the amazing craft of Todd Howard and his team in making worlds as real as anything on Earth.”

Along with his innovative work on role-playing franchises like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, Howard has been a pioneer of open 3D worlds in other genres as well. In 1995 he released The Terminator: Future Shock, the PC’s first 3D shooter with mouselook. Most recently, Fallout 4 has been a smash hit, both critically and commercially, with numerous nominations in multiple 2016 Choice Award categories, including Game of the Year, Best Design and Best Technology. Howard also directed Fallout Shelter, Bethesda Game Studios’ first mobile game, which quickly rose to the number one spot on the iTunes App Store and Google Play store within days of its release. Fallout Shelter also received a Choice Award nomination for Best Handheld/Mobile Game.

The Game Developers Choice Awards takes place on March 16, immediately following the Independent Games Festival (starting at 6:30pm PT). Held at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center during the 2016 Game Developers Conference, the ceremony will be open to all GDC attendees. Those not in attendance can watch a livestream of the event via Twitch.tv. For more information about the 16th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, please visit

Bethesda have opened an office in Montreal according to this press release:

BETHESDA GAME STUDIOS OPENS MONTREAL OFFICE

Award-Winning Developer of Fallout 4® and Skyrim® Expands Studio

December 9, 2015 (Rockville, MD) - Bethesda Game Studios®, a ZeniMax® Media company, today announced that it has opened a new development studio in Montreal, Quebec to expand its development capabilities in console, PC, and mobile gaming.

"We've worked with some very talented developers in Montreal for a long time, and decided it was time to open a studio there," said Todd Howard, Game Director and Executive Producer at Bethesda Game Studios. "It's exciting to think about the new games we'll be building together."

Bethesda Game Studios Montreal has already established a core team of more than 40 developers, spanning both console and mobile development. The studio will be managed by industry veteran Yves Lachance as Studio Director.

"Our collaboration with Bethesda Game Studios has been an exhilarating and memorable journey already," said Lachance. "We are thrilled to be launching the studio in Montreal and contributing our city's great game-making talent to the kind of games that Bethesda Game Studios is known for."

Bethesda Game Studios is currently hiring for both its Maryland and Montreal locations. For more information about available jobs, visit http://jobs.zenimax.com.

Bethesda Game Studios recently released Fallout 4, which launched on November 10 with approximately 12 million units for Xbox One, PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system and PC. Earlier this year the studio released its first mobile game for iOS and Android devices, Fallout Shelter, which quickly became the top downloaded game in 48 countries. Considered one of the top game developers in the world, Bethesda Game Studios is also known for creating the 2006 'Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, the 2008 'Game of the Year', Fallout® 3, and the global phenomenon and 2011 'Game of the Year', The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim®.

Pete Hines said that there won't new game anouncements in the Elder Scrolls universe for a very long time.

GameStar reports Bethesda told them at the Gamescom that they've opened a new id Software branch at Frankfurt am Main. The new studio will grow to 20-30 staff in the foreseeable future, with the focus on high quality employees. Instead of working on their own projects it will serve as technology competence center. The first job will be work on the id Tech engine for the new Doom, says GamesMarkt.de. In addition the Frankfurt studio will work on other Bethesda IPs.

A new studio in Frankfurt makes a lot of sense. Although Frankfurt/M. is one of Germany's most expensive cities, the wages for IT personnel are probably still significantly lower than in California, for expample. The gaming industry is booming there, too. Major players in the bigger Frankfurt area are: Crytek (-> Cry Engine), Deck 13, Cloud Imperium (-> Star Citizen engine development), Keen Games (Sacred 3 and a lot of contract work), metricminds (-> a well established motion capture, cut scene and trailer studio), Nintendo Germany, Ubisoft Blue Byte Mainz (-> the former Related Designs; Anno series), Dynamedion (made the music for SpellForce and lots of other games) and last but not least Bethesda's own German office.

The Telegraph interviewed Bethesda's Vice President of Marketing and PR Pete Hines at E3 and talked about Fallout 4, why there is no Skyrim 2, Dishonored, E3 and other stuff.

“It’s rare to have franchises like the ones we have and to have people joking about “when is Skyrim 2 coming out?” says Hines. “The reason they say that is because generally speaking that’s what you’d be getting with another publisher in charge. They’d be spitting out a Skyrim 2 the year after or two years later. That’s just not how we view it. We’re not the sort of publisher that focusses on 'what’s our 25 titles for 2015'.

"We do smaller stuff, we don’t publish to scale, we try to publish to quality. Make sure everything we do is noteworthy. Our approach to that hasn’t differed. Here and there we might change our approach to how it’s presented but we’ve still stuck to who we are.”

And Bethesda are a publisher that certainly has a certain ‘type’ of game, focussing on adult themes and often oodles of blood. The presentation for Doom at Bethesda’s press conference came under fire somewhat for its relentless brutality. “We make mature games. We make games for grown-ups. Or at least 17 and up,” say Hines. “That is our target audience for sure.

"If you look at what we have… even BattleCry, online free-to-play but visceral, bloody, decapitations, dismemberment. We know who our audience is and we haven’t wavered from that. We make games for an older audience because that’s what our devs know. They make the games they want to play.”

Techraptor let us know that they have an overview of the press event Bethesda did yesterday. Most interesting are Dishonered 2 and Fallout 4. Next to that the definitive edition of Dishonered was announced as well as a mobile strategy Fallout game named Fallout Shelter, in case you just can't get enough of everything Fallout. Then there is also some stuff on Doom and ESO, in case you are into those games.

Martin Toney of GamingBolt thinks if Bethesda adds Multiplayer to Fallout 4 it could ruin the game. Now a few years ago I would of agreed, but what about you?

Shaun Prescott of PC Gamer published a new interview with Bethesda Studios level Designer Joel Burgess about horse armor DLC, and the power of mods.

Bethesda’s infamous Horse Armor DLC – the company’s first add-on for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – has a reputation for being among the lamest early DLC offerings. While that may be true on the surface, it was also a gateway of sorts for Bethesda, coming at a time when the company was wrestling with ideas for how to approach the newly developed concept.

The widely derided DLC “did a lot of stuff for us internally,” Bethesda Studios level designer Joel Burgess said during a presentation at GDC on Tuesday.

"Back in 2005 developers were wondering: what does DLC even mean? How do we make it? How do we expect to know what people even want to play or what it's going to cost?

"We needed something that would test our systems, add some new art and dialogue, and add some new hooks and quests to the game. [It would need to] test the pipeline and feel out the market for what was the best thing we could possibly do.

“So we came up with horse armor," Burgess said.

Bethesda posted another interview on their blog this time with a modder by the name of Will Hillson, who is part of the Dark Creations team.His mod is called Beyond Skyrim.

Can you give a general overview of Beyond Skyrim and where the mod project currently stands?

Beyond Skyrim is a series of interlinking mods which will ultimately allow players to visit other areas of Tamriel within the Skyrim engine. Assets for each new region are being painstakingly created from scratch, including architecture, creatures, weapons, landscapes, textures and objects created by our artists and modelers. We pride ourselves on our fidelity to Elder Scrolls lore, and our ultimate aim is to create a player experience which will fit together seamlessly with Skyrim itself, allowing players to continue their existing character’s adventures in other lands, or perhaps even sidestep Skyrim’s story  entirely and experience what the rest of Tamriel has to offer.

We have made three years of progress towards this goal, though of course there remain many challenges ahead. When we started back in 2011, we had little more than ideas and determination. While similar mods had been conceptualized and even released for previous Elder Scrolls games, we’re in uncharted territory for Skyrim.  As we move into 2015, we have built up a well-developed and cohesive community dedicated to our goals, in which our veteran members can actively train newcomers and continue to grow the project. Both our technical and artistic foundations are now firm and we are working hard to implement the quests, characters and stories that will bring this expanding world to life.

Martin Toney has a new post on Gamingbolt where he talks about the trend of broken games recently, and has doubts that Fallout 4 will possible be one of them also.

Well another week and I found two more article with rumors about Bethesda. The first rumorm is from GaeranX with information about Fallout 4 being announced.  

Last week we had the latest in a long line of Fallout 4 hoaxes in the form of a Shadow of Boston patent application in Germany but rumours are once again swirling around the internet, this time claiming that the game, whatever it's called, will have a VGX reveal. 

Geoff Keighley, the Spike TV presenter and VGX host, recently tweeted a meeting he had with Bethesda chiefs. “Great night planning with the ladies who run Bethesda. You are missed @DCDeacon.”  DCDeacon is Bethesda's PR chife Pete Hines. 

It's being spectulated that the fact Bethesda and Keighley were "planning" something suggests a reveal for a Bethesda game at VGX, which will be next month.

The site said the same thing last year also.

Next I found another rumor about a possible new Elder Scroll's game called Argonia.

Get hyped Elder Scrolls fans as Elder Scrolls 6 has been confirmed to be in the works right now and if the reports are to be believed, the game is going to be on Black Marsh aka Argonia!

In a report by the Tehran Chronicle, they have confirmed that not only has Elder Scrolls 6 has been confirmed, the game has been in under heavy development from Bethesda!

I'll believe that also when I see the official confirmation. So speculte away.

A site called Game Chup has a rumor that Bethesda will be releasing new re-mastered editions of Fallout 3, New Vegas,and  the games DLC.

So if true have fun buying them again for $40-60.

The patent is called Fallout: Ultimate Collection and presumably it means it will feature Fallout 3, New Vegas and DLCs remastered for next-gen platforms? This is pure speculation right now but it suggests that Bethesda might follow other publishers in releasing remastered versions of old games before releasing the mainline game.

Hopefully, both Fallout 4 and the Ultimate Collection would be revealed at VGX, as Geoff Keighley has been hinting at a few surprises and has also been meeting Bethesda reps lately.

What Culture is back with another one of their infamous top ten lists. This time they talk about the ten characters we need to see again in Fallout 4.

The Fallout series has never been shy about referencing its many beloved characters and locales. The recent iterations of the franchise have been laden with nods to games gone by, whether they’ve come in the form of fully fledged characters or merely through a cleverly placed Easter egg: these allusions tie the post-apocalyptic wasteland together, they’re one of the many things that makes it feel so alive.

There are characters throughout the Fallout universe that for whatever reason, have managed to imprint themselves upon the memories of countless gamers. It’s not always the most impactful characters – sometimes it’s the most bizarre. However, bringing a character from one world into another is no mean feat, and getting it wrong can taint the character indefinitely.

This being the Fallout universe almost anything is possible, and with all the games being set within a reasonable number of years from one another, it’s entirely likely that characters from the original Fallout games could be seen standing alongside figures from Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas.

Even after investing hundreds of hours in these worlds, there are still story-lines that need tying up, themes that need exploring and friendly faces we’d love to see again; human or not.

I found news of a new fan petition from a fan of Bethesda’s games who is asking the publisher to release their earlier games for free on Steam.

AG: Why do you think Bethesda should listen to your request to release the earlier games for free?

CY: Because it's the 20th Anniversary of The Elder Scrolls, something which Bethesda is best known for. It's pretty obvious that they aren't getting profit from those first four games, and I generally think that Bethesda should give it to the fans instead of leaving such goodness to waste somewhere.

AG: What is it about the earlier Elder Scrolls games that you think fans of the newer titles will enjoy?

CY: I think they'll love the chance to get back to the roots of The Elder Scrolls, and it gives them a chance to learn how such a massive and amazingly built RPG started.

AG: And finally, if your petition is a success, what kind of content do you think the modding community would/should add to these games?

CY: I'd love to see "HD" versions/bugfixes, etc. of the games and/or extra stuff, items, tools, etc.

AG: Thanks again for your time, and good luck with the petition.

To some of you this may seem like a bold request, but I say ‘why not, eh?’ It’s worth a shot, and crazier things have happened. And like Christopher said, it would be interesting to see what modders could bring to the earlier games, like new items, tools and weapons - we've all seen the amazing and crazy things the Skyrim Steam Workshop has brought. So, if you’re a fan of The Elder Scrolls games and want give Christopher’s petition the best chance of succeeding, head on over to the Change.org petition page and add your name to the list.

So will he succeed or not? Share your opinion in the comment section.

Bethesda shares news on the Beth Blog that the Fallout Classics are back on Steam.

Fallout Classics Return to Steam

Your favorite Fallout Classics are back. Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics are now available for purchase on Steam individually for $9.99 or in the Fallout Classics pack for $19.99.

Some details to note:

• All three games have Steam Cloud enabled for save games.
• Fallout 1 & Fallout 2 can be launched in either default or classic versions. Default allows for high resolutions and Classic is the original, unmodified release.
• Fallout Tactics is unmodified. Multiplayer works with direct connect.
• While Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 can run on Windows 8, Fallout Tactics is not Windows 8 compatible.

Todd Howard the Game Director of Bethesda is interviewed in a new video on Game Star to talk about Skyrim, and the Fallout games.

Thank you HiddenX for the link.

The Beth Blog shares news that Todd Howard has been given a LARA of Honor.

We’re very excited and proud to share news that at this year’s LARA (also known as The German Games Award), Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard will receive the ‘LARA of Honor’ award.

Widely considred the highlight of the annual award show, the LARA of Honor has been given out since 2007. Previous winners include Ralph H Baer (2007), Allan Alcorn (2007), Jürgen Goeldner (2008), Alexej Pajitnov (2009), Nolan Bushnell (2010), Yves Guillemot (2011), Will Wright (2012) and Richard Garriott (2013).

Everyone at Bethesda is very excited for Todd to receive this award. It’s a testament to the hard work he and the BGS team has done, and to the great games they have produced over the last 20 years.

Thanks to IncGamers I found news that Bethesda has re-rated Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics for a possible re-launch on Steam. 

Potential Fallout players were frustrated to see Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel removed from Steam last year. The games were removed due to the game rights changing hands from Interplay to Zenimaxx.

At the time Bethesda stated they were working to get the games made available on both GOG and Steam but there’s not been any official word from Bethesda for months.

There could now be some movement to get this problem resolved. It appears that all three games have been re-rated by the ESRB which would suggest that Bethesda are working on getting the games made available for digital download once again.

There’s still no official word on when the games will return but hopefully we’ll hear more from Bethesda in the days ahead. What about a Fallout 4 announcement instead?

Bethesda has a new post on the company's blog with a letter from Todd Howard that celebrate 20 Years of Elder Scrolls. I can't believe it has been that long already.

There are many memories of what this series has meant to us, and to you. But I often think of one. When we were making Skyrim, but before it was announced, we were visited by a teenager through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. That day in our area, the foundation had arranged for several kids to spend time with President Obama, another with Spider-Man, and this amazing person with us. That was his wish – to see the new Elder Scrolls game. He was the first person outside the team to ever play Skyrim.

And that’s the thing not just about The Elder Scrolls, but experiences like it. They’re important. Yes, they are just games, or just entertainment. But how we all spend our time is important. The best experiences can fill you with the wonder of discovery, and the pride of accomplishment. The fact that you have spent so much time in these worlds with us, and have supported us each and every game, has meant the world to us.

And now The Elder Scrolls is ready to head in a new direction – online. The great folks at ZeniMax Online have brought the same passion and dedication to that game that we brought to ours. And like the other titles, it will be its own thing. We hope you give them the same support and feedback you’ve given us for so long.

Where does The Elder Scrolls go over the next 20 years? Time will tell. But I know it will continue to be an amazing partnership with you. And we can’t wait to play it.

CVG interviews Bethesda's Pete Hines to talk about the Elder Scrolls Online subscription model, and other games in the development.

Why do you think other publishers consider it a risk to ship without multiplayer?

I have no idea. On this side of the fence in the gaming industry, I've never worked anywhere but Bethesda, so I can't really speak of what happens at other publisher developers. I suppose it's because they think it makes a game more appealing to a wider audience, that it's got replayability or additional features which will make you want to buy the game more. That would be my assumption.

Elder Scrolls is probably your flagship series at Bethesda. Star Wars: The Old Republic didn't work with a subscription model and that's one of the biggest entertainment brands in the world. Is there any anxiety about this model not working?

Anxiety? I would say yes, because I'm anxious about everything all the time [laughs]. I don't get paid to sit around and assume that everything is fine, so I tend to worry about everything and I want to make sure that we're doing things in the right way for the right reasons. But I guess, to answer your question, I don't know whether or not previous games that have done subscriptions haven't succeeded because they were subscription-based, or because of the game that they were and the value that the customer got, and that's ultimately what we're talking about.

If you feel like you're getting your money's worth for whatever you're paying - whether it be $15 for a month or $2 for a DLC - then you're going to be happy. If you're not, then you won't. You could do a free-to-play game where somebody wasn't happy, because maybe they don't feel like they're getting value for the money that they played upfront, even if it's not a pay-by-month subscription. We felt like the subscription model fit best what we wanted to do, not because we want you to pay per month to play the game, but because we want to provide real and meaningful content support on a regular basis.

Does Bethesda have any more announcements this year?

It remains to be seen. Is that coy enough? I think it's rare that we let a year go by that we're not talking about something, but you know, we've got a number of studios at work on a number of things: Battlecry, which we started up a year-and-a-half ago is working on a free-to-play thing we haven't talked about. Arkane and id [are working on projects], and even among folks that we do have announced titles for, there's lots going on. We'll just have to wait and see.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun managed to get in contact with Game Director Todd Howard to talk about some of the Fallout 4 rumors. Here are his answers.

“The ARG was very, very well done,” he chuckled. “It’s a testament to our fans. And they’re doing that stuff and making mods. The stuff they do, we often look at and go, ‘Well, why don’t we just do that? That’s really great.’”

But surely an announcement is just around the corner, right? Right? That’s where things get strange. While one might expect Bethesda to be gearing up for a big reveal, Howard sure made it sound like very little is on the horizon for the time being. Things, he seemed to suggest, are still in a rather experimental phase.

“We don’t [have a timeframe for our next game announcement],” he said, “but I think it’s gonna be a while.”

“We’ve gotten fairly used to all the questions and curiosity over the years. Everyone wants information. Right now, we’re just trying to figure out which of our ideas are going to stick and finding an appropriate time to talk about it.”

So then, it’ll be “a while.” But what about all that voice casting stuff? Well, somewhat ironically, that’s where Howard clammed up. There is some good news, though. PC has reclaimed its spot at the forefront of gaming’s charge into the future, and Bethesda has absolutely taken notice.

“PC is resurgent,” enthused Howard. “Skyrim did better than we’ve ever done on PC by a large, large number. And that’s where the mods are. That feeds the game for a long time. And it’s exciting that the new consoles are very PC-like. That opens up avenues for us going forward to do things that we’ve wanted to do in the past. There are kind of random ideas we’re working on right now, and it’s like, ‘Wow, I think there’s potential here to do some really cool stuff.’”

PC Gamer has another what they want article this time for Elder Scrolls VI.

What we want from The Elder Scrolls VI

The Elder Scrolls Online may be getting all of the attention right now, but for many of us, the soul of the series will always be Bethesda's sprawling, open-world single-player games. It seems likely that we'll see a new Fallout before we see a new numbered titled in the beloved fantasy RPG series, but that doesn't mean we can't start to dream, right?We've seen the series make dramatic leaps over the last decade, to the point that the textures and environments we once fawned over in Oblivion now seem laughably out of date compared to the snowcapped peaks of Skyrim, and enough time has passed to allow for better, bigger roleplaying experiences. But can the next installment deliver?

Thanks Thrasher for the link.

It seems you can't stop the rumors that keep popping up every month. I have two new articles that deal with Fallout 4, Elder Scrolls 6, and new job openings.

I Digital Times - Fallout 4 Release Date Rumor

Well, well, well. It's déjà vu all over again. It feels like only yesterday when I was writing about some possible Fallout 4 release date news cropping up at PAX East ... 2013. But here we are. It's 2014 and we're going through the motions once again. Although Bethesda hasn't confirmed a damn thing, fans have been anticipating confirmation of a Boston-based Fallout 4 game ever since Kotaku broke the news that Bethesda did some casting for the title. And now Bethesda's PR kingpin Pete Hines has confirmed they will have a booth at the upcoming Boston-based gaming convention

OXM - "Fallout 4 or Elder Scrolls 6"

There's Prey 2, for one thing - Human Head's open world action project has been floating in limbo for years, and may have been transferred to another studio, reportedly Dishonored developer Arkane. For another, there's id Software's even more overdue DOOM 4, which has allegedly been sent back to square one after a period of mismanagement, presumably not helped by the departure of programming guru John Carmack. And finally, the increasingly mythical Fallout 4, the subject of many a fan hoax in recent months.

PR sources continue to observe radio silence in regards to all these titles. It's probable they won't budge as regards the below job listings, either, which suggest that Bethesda Game Studios has another Elder Scrolls or Fallout-style RPG on the boil. Hardly the most shocking news, no - we already know that Skyrim game director Todd Howard has a game on the boil that's "100% unrelated" to the forthcoming Elder Scrolls Online.

IncGamers has news of a fan petition for Fallout 4 confirmation by Bethesda.

If you remember last November the survivor2299 site kicked off the whole Fallout 4 buzz with a bang but was subsequently revealed to be a hoax which upset many fans of the series. There was also the EU trademark filing mystery which again turned out to be a hoax.

Once all that had been confirmed as fakes and Bethesda announced they would not reveal anything at the VGX in December it was apparent they had no intention of revealing Fallout 4.

Then on 12 December word of a leaked script for Fallout 4 surfaced, and while it wasn’t confirmed as the script for Fallout 4, the dialogue certainly hinted that it was legitimate.

Bethesda took a fair amount of criticism for not shutting down all the hoaxes and they joined the party rather late in the day to debunk all the rumours with the following Tweet on 5 December.

With all that history fans are now urging Bethesda to step up and help put their minds at rest. A petition has just been launched by fans asking Bethesda to “throw throw us a bone” with any kind of hint that it is in development.

Petitions such as this will unlikely have any sway with a developer but if you feel passionate enough about Fallout 4 then why not fire your name down on the list.

After the take down of all Fallout games on GOG it seems Bethesda has pulled them off Steam also. According to this tweet they are planning to re-release them on Steam.

We’re working to return classic @Fallout games (1, 2, Tactics) to Steam and will provide an update when they’re ready to go.

— Bethesda Softworks (@Bethblog) 

If any of you were following the latest Fallout  4 rumors turns out it was a Hoax.

There are increasing indications that the survivor2299.com website was part of an elaborate hoax to troll Fallout fans, rather than an official viral tease of any sort, and true to that, Bitdefender Antivirus now warns that it's blocking the page due to malware. Bethesda seems to finally be addressing this, as Bethesda Blog tweets: "PSA: If you don’t hear it through an official channel like this, assume all rumors and speculation are false." They blame their extremely tardy clarification on not taking the 10 million blog posts and forum comments about this seriously at first, saying "@CrashRakashe we avoid responding to rumors and speculation, but did wanted to respond once people took it more seriously." The first report we saw on this suggested it was a fake, but there have been various indications since then further confusing the issue, including the website apparently being registered to Zenimax. IncGamers recaps the whole shebang, which included another viral site launching yesterday that also seems to be Fallout related, but this is apparently also part of the original hoax, and has likewise been disavowed by Zenimax, who say: "Not us. We’re looking into who is doing this."

Thanks go to Bluesnews for this news-bit.

If you have been following the news in the forums about Fallout 4 it seems there might be some truth to them. According to The Vault Bethesda has trademarked the next Fallout game.

Bethesda registers Fallout 4 trademark

The Internet exploded in speculation as it turned out that a few days ago, Bethesda filed for a Fallout 4 trademark with the Office for the Harmonization of the Internal Market through their usual legal firm, DLA Piper.

You can find the filings here and here. Both are Nice classes 9, 16, 25, 41.

In human terms, this means Bethesda filed for trademarks for games, online information about games, printed media, and clothing. If you want the precise legal definition, look up the above links.

Now, does that mean anything? Maybe. Digging up the trademark filing for Fallout: New Vegas, it can be plainly seen that the European trademark was registered in October 2009, in Nice classes 9 and 41, about four months before the teaser trailer was released in February 2010. This might be a similar situation. Might just be the company protecting its IP.

Is it related to the thesurvivor2299.com website? That remains to be seen. Reddit users have traced the countdown code to a Polish web developer, Krzysztof Furtak. The code is available publicly under the GNU GPL license. Does this explain the presence of Polish variables in the code? Maybe. It doesn't explain, however, why the site was initially hosted on a Polish server or why a multimillion dollar gaming company would use a GPL code when they have enough web designers of their own. A strong dose of skepticism is recommended.

MotoringCrunch has another rumor for Fallout 4 this time supposedly a PR leak from a Reddit user called GNR_Informant who says that he has a friend who works in Public Relations at Bethesda.

You know the drill by now so grab the salt on your way out.

First and foremost, the game will take place in Boston, and be kind of a direct sequel to Fallout 3 with a few groups returning. From what it sounds like, “The Institute” is pretty much the downtown DC or New Vegas of this game. Boston is going to be unlike anything we’ve seen in a Fallout game before, with buildings more on par with cyberpunk and retro-futurism.

Bethesda has no plans to reinvent the leveling up system to make it more like Skyrim and want to make Fallout 4 more distinct from Skyrim since of the complaints that Oblivion and Fallout 3 were too similar. Bethesda is thinking about introducing a system, similar to Skyrim, where your skills can level up if you perform certain tasks.

Androids play a big part in this game. The railroad from Fallout 3 is a faction. The enemies of the railroad is “the Plantation” — a group who force Androids to farm so that Humans can get food. The Institute is highly advanced and probably obtained or built their own GECK to start a farm.

Due to complaints about using Super Mutants and the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout 3 excessively and going against the lore too much, Bethesda has decided to avoid using these groups. Bethesda wants to make a new “race” (think Ghoul, Super Mutant) which will be central to Boston. Bethesda is currently looking at Lovecraftian fiction since Boston is around “Lovecraft Country”.

Well today I have another blog with news that Fallout 4 has been in production for a while. Now go read the blog and take it with a grain of salt also.

IGN made a post “Can Bethesda Make Fallout 4 the Best Game Of The Next Generation?” Fans of the game believe that they will, but there was one thing that did stand out above everything else.

“First things first, I know that Fallout 4 is currently in active development at Bethesda.”

Fans enjoyed hearing this of course but some asked if IGN knew something that no one else did. Of course we wouldn’t be surprised by this as they are close to some of the big names.

However we did hear some more news about Fallout 4.

This news came from one of the designers who had worked on Fallout 2 along with Fallout: New Vegas. The designer said:

“We actually were kicking around some ideas after New Vegas for cool locations for the next Fallout. One of our designers Nathanial Chapman mentioned it’d be really cool to do a Fallout New Orleans. Have an entire city that had like a dam structure and lots of factions and tensions fighting in that city. And then our lead programmer on New Vegas, Frank Kowalkowski, he really wanted to do a Fallout that is set in San Francisco,” Avellone said. “In terms of stuff on the East Coast, there was this really brief mention of this region called the Erie Stretch in the Fallout 3 DLC [The Pit]. And I am really curious to see if they’ll bring that region back in future Fallout instalments because it seemed like a really intriguing location to explore.”

All Purpose Blogger has wote a new article about what they want in Fallout 4. I know the game hasn't been announced, but we know it will at some point in time. So debate away.

There are a few whispers flying around about the possibility of a new Fallout game (presumably Fallout 4). The rumours mostly stem from the voice actor of Three Dog (“Oooooowwwwwww!” etc.) working on a “top secret” development game as far as I can tell, alongside a few other staff members at Bethesda hinting at ideas, so it could all be complete nonsense. But let’s face it, why wouldn’t Bethesda be working on a new sequel? They’d have to be insane not to. Everything about the Fallout universe is awesome: the games just have a plot and atmosphere that you can’t seem to find anywhere else. The fans are crying out for it.

Two of the big reasons for the rising expectations are a source at IGN, with “First things first, I know that Fallout 4 is currently in active development at Bethesda.” and a warning from Pete Hines “not to even ask us about the game or questions how far in development the game is”. So that got me thinking… if they did happen to make another Fallout game (which they will, I’m betting), what would I want to see from the post-apocalyptic world this time? After New Vegas and Fallout 3 (along with the classics of course) what did I figure was missing from the previous games, or should be scheduled for a triumphant return? Read on below to find out!

Bethesda Softworks sent a press release to us today announcing the opening of a new Australian office.

October 2, 2013 (Rockville, MD) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, today announced it has established a new publishing office in Sydney, Australia. ZeniMax Australia Pty Ltd will directly oversee sales, marketing, and distribution for all Bethesda titles in Australia and New Zealand.

The establishment of ZeniMax Australia underscores the importance of the growing Australian market as well as the company’s continuing commitment to the Asia Pacific region. ZeniMax also has operations in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

With the opening of the new office in Australia comes the appointment of Simon Alty as Managing Director for the new territory. Alty was most recently Managing Director of One to Another Pty Ltd where he and his team played a pivotal role in many successful Bethesda launches including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim®.

“Simon’s experience and expertise in the games industry – specifically having worked on sales and marketing of Bethesda’s titles the last four years – will be of great value as we open a publishing office in Sydney,” said Sean Brennan, Managing Director, ZeniMax Europe Ltd. “Looking ahead, 2014 promises to be a big year for Bethesda as we release a trio of AAA titles: The Elder Scrollsâ Online, Wolfensteinâ: The New Orderä and The Evil Withinä.”

Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls Anthology at QuakeCon. It will be released on  September 10 for $79.99.

The Elder Scrolls Anthology includes:

The Elder Scrolls Arena

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
• Tribunal
• Bloodmoon

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• Knights of the Nine
• Shivering Isles

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• Dawnguard
• Hearthfire
• Dragonborn

IGN has quotes from an upcoming interview with Pete Hines where Bethesda discusses possible follow-ups to a couple of the publisher's recent games.

Last year, Bethesda VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines called Dishonored a “new franchise,” noting at the time that it was “far exceeding our sales expectations.” In an interview at E3, IGN asked Hines if Bethesda still sees a future in the series, plus how big of a priority it is for the publisher moving forward.

“In general, we try not to wade into anything as a one-off in the first place,” Hines told IGN, “so yeah, for sure. The success of that game and how proud Arkane is of it and what goes on at any studio when they put out something like that and all the ideas that are coming out, certainly it’s something that we feel is a franchise.”

What we do or don’t do on Dishonored has zero effect on Id, Tango, Machine Games. Each one, in some respects, kind of acts in a silo.

“It’s specific to Arkane,” Hines continued. “What we do or don’t do on Dishonored has zero effect on Id, Tango, Machine Games. Each one, in some respects, kind of acts in a silo. It doesn’t really matter what those guys are making. ‘What are you good at? What are you going to work on next? What are you going to do next? Okay, that’s what we’re going to do.’ It’s as simple as that.”

With the mention of Id, we asked Hines about recent reports that Rage 2 has been canceled and whether that franchise still has a potential future.

“To be determined,” Hines said. “We’ll see. Right now, [Id’s] focus is on their current project. They are full bore on that. What I’ve seen of it recently, I’m super happy about it. We want them to stick to that until we’re ready to talk about what that is. But let’s wait until we get there first.”

We all know Bethesda is working on another Fallout 4 or Scroll game, but it might be a while before we get to hear anything about it. Pete Hines has told OXM in a brief chat at E3 that the project isn't quite ready to be announced any time soon.

Hines also advised caution, despite his optimism about the project. "I get to see it and it's already really awesome, but it's probably helpful to note that anyone who thinks that what he's working on next is going to be talked about soon doesn't understand game development.

"They just announced that they're moving the whole team onto something else. Give these guys time and space, expect it never and be surprised if it's any time before then."

"Arkane, id and all of these guys, they work on really big projects that are ambitious, and it just takes them awhile to get to speed. You know how we are; we like to show what we're up to, not just put something up and there's no substance to it. It's going to be a while."

In my opinion they don't want to announce Fallout 4 because it will dilute the enthusiasm for ESO, Wolfenstein, and their other published games.

Bethesda Softworks announced their schedule at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013.

Bethesda will be showcasing their recently announced projects The Evil Within and Wolfenstein: The New Order, as well as The Elder Scrolls Online. However only Wolfenstein: The New Order and The Elder Scrolls Online will be playable at Bethesda's booth.

The presentation and playing the games at the booth should take an average of 2 hours. 

For those attending E3 the booth number and hourly booth appointment time are as follow:

Bethesda Softworks Booth Number: 523, South Hall

Hourly Booth Appointment Times:

Tuesday, June 11:

12:00pm; 1:00pm; 2:00pm; 3:00pm; 4:00pm & 5:00pm

Wednesday, June 12:

10:00am; 11:00pm; 12:00pm; 1:00pm; 2:00pm; 3:00pm; 4:00pm & 5:00pm 

Thursday, June 13:

10:00am; 11:00pm; 12:00pm; 1:00pm; 2:00pm; 3:00pm & 4:00pm

Well if you ever wanted to be a play tester Bethesda is looking to hire in the Dallas area. If you apply you might be one of the gamers invited to Bethesda's Play Test Lab.

Bethesda Softworks is looking for volunteers to come to our studios to play test our upcoming and released games. Most play tests last an hour or two and you must provide your own transportation to the play test. We are currently looking for testers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but are accepting applications from all over the US.

Here are a few things you should know about play testing before you apply:

    -You must be 18 to apply and participate in a play test, no exceptions.

    -You cannot participate in a play test if you work for a video game developer, or publisher, or if you are journalist that reviews video games.

    -You will be required to a sign a non-disclosure agreement and show a valid government issued photo ID evidencing that you are at least 18 years old on the date of the play test.

    -You must provide a valid email address when signing up. The email address you give on your application will be used to contact you about play testing opportunities.

    -Participation in a play test is strictly on a voluntary basis and is not a paid position, nor does it qualify as employment. You may, however, receive games or swag in connection with your participation in the play test.

    -We are looking for players of all skill levels and gaming backgrounds. It is important for us to know how the game feels for everyone, so even if you are not very good at video games you can still apply.

    -We are only accepting play tester applications in the US. We are not accepting international applications at this time.

Bethesda's Pete Hines has been interviewed by Destructoid about the reasons why games Dishonored, Skyrim and Fallout 3 were a success as they are contradicting the trend in the gaming industry.....

The game industry tells us many things in order to justify its various activities. Multiplayer is added to so many games because solo experiences are dying. Online passes are needed because used games are killing creativity. Creativity is dead because new intellectual property is too difficult to establish. 

Despite these claims, there is much evidence of success to the contrary. Single-player games that sell well, releases that survive without scads of launch day downloadable content, and companies that are doing just fine without having to wage war on the used game market. 

In my opinion, Bethesda has been one company that really goes against the grain. As a publisher of what's called "AAA" games, the company has had success with such games as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Dishonored -- each game bucking "AAA" trends in some way or other. 

Why, exactly, is Bethesda able to get away with it?

The Elder Scrolls Online developer Bethesda has released a bunch of new screenshots. They show off some characters up close, combat, and various locations from the game’s vast world.

Thanks AGB use this link for larger size pictures. I'm still trying to work out the whole image posting. Sorry for the inconvenience.

From the Bethblog:

We are pleased to announce that the official soundtracks for seven of our most popular games are now available for purchase on iTunes. Soundtracks include:

• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Original Game Soundtrack  – (Jeremy Soule) — $9.99
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Original Game Soundtrack – (Jeremy Soule) –  $9.99
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Original Game Soundtrack  – (Jeremy Soule) — $15.99
• Fallout 3 Original Game Soundtrack – (Inon Zur) — $11.99
• Fallout: New Vegas Original Game Soundtrack (Inon Zur) — $11.99
• Dishonored Original Game Soundtrack – (Daniel Licht) — $9.99
• RAGE Original Game Soundtrack (Rod Abernethy) — $9.99

To purchase these soundtracks, just click on the album names above and you’ll be taken directly to iTunes.

PC Gamer lays out their ideas to improve Fallout 4:

Make it about survival. In Bethesda’s hands, the Wasteland is fun. By the middle of a run through you’re clobbering Deathclaws with concrete capped rebars and sipping irradiated water without a care in the world. Possibly with a pinkie out. The point being is that the notion of survival becomes obsolete in a world dripped in caps to find, traders to sell to, and junk to collect. New Vegas has hardcore mode, forcing you to think about food, water, and rest, as well as altering the way meds and stimpaks work, but it’s still a world that can easily and comfortably be lived in. It needn’t be the main difficulty level, but the option to make the world a harsh place to live, to make the players think about every move, not just their weapon and perk choices, would give the ashy flavour of survival. 

The voice of Fallout 3's Three Dogs character, Erik Todd Dellums, has hinted of further work as that character. From his twitter stream:

To all my #Fallout3 and #ThreeDog fans: There may be more of the Dog coming! Fingers crossed!

It seems Bethsoft blessed this teasing, as well:

@ToastTheRabbit How was that for a tease! I was given permission to release that tease, so fingers crossed.  

The Bethblog is teasing a new trailer that will be released on Monday. No product is listed but make up your own mind:

Bethesda sent word that they are opening a new studio in Austin. The game they will be working on is unannounced at the moment but as Rich Vogel is heading it, they might be working on a MMO title.

Bethesda Softworks Opens Battlecry Studios in Austin

Long-time Industry Veteran Rich Vogel to Head Development at New Studio

October 3, 2012 (Rockville, MD) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, is pleased to announce it has established a new studio in Austin, Texas, Battlecry Studios, to be headed by long-time industry veteran Rich Vogel. Most recently, Vogel worked at Bioware where he served as the executive producer on the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Rich has a long history in the industry having worked on Ultima Online, and Star Wars Galaxies as well as other online and console titles during his 20+ years in game development. The new studio is currently hiring other experienced game developers to fill key roles for an unannounced project.

 “I have always admired and respected Bethesda’s approach to making great, original games,” said Vogel. “It’s a belief and passion I share, and I’m looking forward to building a team of high quality developers who want to bring that same commitment and creative energy to the games we’ll be creating.”

 “We are very pleased to have someone with Rich’s vast experience join us at Bethesda,” said Vlatko Andonov, President of Bethesda Softworks. “Rich has a history of building and managing talented development teams and bringing high quality games to market, and we look forward to working with him on a new exciting project.”

 Battlecry Studios will be the second ZeniMax studio located in Austin, joining Arkane® Studios, whose highly-anticipated title, Dishonored™, ships this month. For more information about Bethesda Softworks and available jobs at Battlecry Studios, visit: http://jobs.zenimax.com/.

Bethsoft sends word they have completely revamped their main website with a new design. I can't see anything revolutionary but it looks nice enough.

Multiple sites (Blues and RPS, for example) are running the rumour that Bethesda is developing a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game. This comes from the blog of Sergey Galyonkin, who purportedly works for 1C, and who has been the source of all the GSC / S.T.A.L.K.E.R. tidbits over the last year or so.

According to this claim, Bethesda has not purchased the brand but has the rights to create a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game using their own technology. An "experienced" studio is apparently already at work - Obsidian is suggested as one possibility.

All rumour and although Sergey seems to have good mail on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in general, I can't help wondering why Bethesda would want to put Obsidian on a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game they don't own, when they could put them to work on another Fallout title with near guaranteed results.

We won't be covering the TES Online permanently but it's worth touching on a few things before we move on.

The official site is open, offering an announcement trailer that sets the scene (no gameplay footage), Joystiq thinks they've found some art and Digitally Downloaded was quick to get an Op Ed online - Way To Kill Your Brand, Bethesda:

But here’s the secret, guys: you can’t out World of Warcraft World of Warcraft. It’s silly to even try. That game has a what, 10 year head start on any new MMO? Here’s my ultimate concern with the idea of an Elder Scrolls MMO: The Elder Scrolls games have always been premium quality. The best possible games in the genre that developers can make. The Elder Scrolls MMO will not be that.

I’ve got no doubts it will be an OK game. It’s being directed by the guy behind the eternally decent Dark Age of Camelot. It’ll find a community of fans. I’ve got no doubts about that. I also don’t think it will replace World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Starcraft or any other online game as the king of owning people’s time. And in doing so it’s going to be a shadow, when it’s a series that’s used to casting the shadows.

That doesn’t help your brand, Bethesda. It dilutes it. And for what? To cave into the idea that games have to have multiplayer to be worthwhile now? 

Finally, Zenimax Online Studios has announced The Elder Scrolls Online, due for release in 2013. The official press release is below but before you hit the forums to bemoan the loss of a single-player franchise, remember this is being developed by an entirely different division.

BETHESDA SOFTWORKS ANNOUNCES THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE

ZeniMax Online Studios Takes Award-Winning Elder Scrolls Franchise Online In Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

May 3, 2012 (London, UK) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, today announced The Elder Scrolls® Online, an MMO in development at ZeniMax Online Studios. The Elder Scrolls Online will be the first Elder Scrolls game to allow gamers to explore the legendary Elder Scrolls world with others.

The Elder Scrolls Online is being developed for PC and Mac under the leadership of industry veteran Matt Firor, who has spent the last two decades working in online game development. Details about the game are revealed in an exclusive cover story in Game Informer®’s June issue, which ships to subscribers and newsstands this month. 

“We have been working hard to create an online world in which players will be able to experience the epic Elder Scrolls universe with their friends, something fans have long said they wanted,” said Matt Firor, game director of The Elder Scrolls Online. “It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years. The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise.”

Pete Hines has teased an image on twitter, saying only "tomorrow". The image, which shows a man facing the camera and another in silhouette reveals little (to me), with several sites assuming it represents Skyrim DLC. Bethsoft has a number of properties, so anything is possible.

Let's hear your theory in the comments.

Julius Magnus writes he occasionally looks through trademark filings and noticed a new entry from Bethsoft parent Zenimax filed around 10 days ago for "Dawnguard". We have nothing but rampant speculation for what it could be but it sure sounds like a nice Skyrim DLC title...

Bethsoft is starting to ramp up for their next title - although obviously we won't hear what it is for a couple of years yet:

While Bethesda Game Studios continues to work on Skyrim, the team is ramping up for their next major release. Visit our job website to find career opportunities for animators, artists, designers, and programmers — including our new programming position focusing on future generation consoles and PCs.

For more on BGS, be sure to follow the team on our newly-created Twitter and Facebook pages.

Michal sends news of a tribute page for Bethsoft's Adam Adamowicz, who passed away last week from cancer. Adam was a concept artist for Fallout 3, Skyrim and other titles. 

From Gamebanshee comes news that Bethesda Softworks now officially owns the rights to Fallout. Interplay has given up on their rights to Fallout for a payment of 2 million US dollars.
Gamebanshee has the full press release, so here's a snippet:

January 9, 2012 (Rockville, MD) –ZeniMax® Media Inc. today announced that a settlement had been reached in the lawsuit filed by its subsidiary, Bethesda Softworks®, against Interplay Entertainment Corporation in 2009, Bethesda Softworks LLC v Interplay Entertainment Corp., seeking cancellation of the license granted to Interplay to develop a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) based on the Fallout brand. Bethesda maintained in its complaint that Interplay had failed to meet the conditions for the license and the license was therefore of no continuing validity.

Under the terms of the settlement, the license granted to Interplay to develop the Fallout MMO is null and void, and all rights granted to Interplay to develop a Fallout MMO revert back to Bethesda, effective immediately. Interplay has no ongoing right to use the Fallout brand or any Fallout intellectual property for any game development. ZeniMax will pay Interplay $2 million as consideration in the settlement, each party will bear its own costs of the litigation, and Bethesda will continue to own all Fallout intellectual property rights. Interplay will be permitted to continue to sell the original Fallout ®Tactics, Fallout® and Fallout® 2 PC games through December 2013, after which time all rights to market those games revert to and become the sole property of Bethesda. Under the original agreement pursuant to which Bethesda had acquired the Fallout property, Interplay was granted certain merchandising rights to sell those original Fallout games, but those merchandising rights will now expire on December 31, 2013.

If you run a Bethsoft game on the X360, you can grab your Horse Armor and the like for 50% off with a DLC sale on Xbox Live.

Todd Howard has told EGM that Bethsoft passed on the opportunity to work with G.R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice IP. As we know, Cyanide Studios ended up with the license, apparently because Bethsoft is too focused on their own IP:

So why didn’t they take the leap? According to Howard, the idea of a partnership was very tempting, but the team was just too invested in their own IP.

“We wanted to do our own world. That’s where we wanted to put out time into. Before we were even making Skyrim, there was a conversation with George R.R. Martin’s people. They thought it would be a good match—and so did we, actually—but then we thought about if that was where we wanted to spend our time. It was tempting, though.”

From the it's-a-strange-world-department (and via RPS again) comes news that Bethsoft appear to have sent a legal notice to Notch (of Minecraft fame) claiming his new development Scrolls infringes on The Elder Scrolls.

OK.

There's a second part of Edge's review with Bethsoft's Pete Hines, talking general business. There's no new game information, so skip it unless this quote grabs you:

It seems like all the games you're publishing are ambitious, risky projects. Are you not tempted to make the cookie-cutter corridor shooter that’s a sure-fire multimillion dollar hit?
I certainly think that we never want to do anything derivative. We don't even want to do stuff that's derivative of stuff we've already made. We definitely don't want to do stuff that's derivative of something that somebody else has made. You look at a game like Prey 2 or you look at a game like Skyrim, and I use those two examples because they're both sequels of something that's already been done, one by us, one not by us, but in both cases there are wholesale changes. We're not afraid to change things up, we're not afraid to let the dev team try something new. They want to explore the universe. And we're the kind of publisher that says, "If that's what you think makes the best game, then go for it."

[People ask us] for a game like Skyrim or Prey 2, why doesn't it have multiplayer? Well our question is always the opposite when we talk to a developer. If you're doing mulitplayer, why are you doing multiplayer? What are you trying to accomplish by doing multiplayer? Because if you're doing it just to check a box or because every other publisher says you’ve got to have multiplayer, then just drop it, don't bother, it's a waste of time, it's a giant distraction and it'll make for a worse overall game. We want the best game possible, if that's a single player game that's fifteen to twenty hours then make that! Don't waste your time on features that don't make the game better.

Bethsoft PR marketing head honcho Pete Hines has been interviewed at Edge about the company and its practices. This isn't really about the games, so if you aren't interested in the business side, move on:

What was in it for ZeniMax, then? Where did it come from?
Nowhere. ZeniMax was created in 1999 and it then created and acquired Bethesda and a few other small companies that became divisions along with Bethesda. It's important to clarify that ZeniMax and Bethesda for all intents and purposes are one thing. Bethesda has no accounting department, we have no finance, we have no legal, our legal department our financial department is ZeniMax, we all operate as one unit. So we have meetings together, we have conversations together. When we have our development meeting every month and bring all of our studios together, it's not just Bethesda or just ZeniMax - it's just all of us together operating and managing the business. A lot of people get confused like, "What's it like working with ZeniMax?" Well technically I'm ZeniMax as well, but Bethesda Softworks is the publisher and ZeniMax is the parent company which owns Bethesda, which owns id, which owns Arkane. But all that really matters is that Bethesda is publishing the games of all those studios.

The Bethblog celebrates their 25th anniversary with some photos of memorabilia from around the office. I'm not much into knick knacks cluttering up the house but that Daggerfall dagger would sure look nice in my office...

Bethsoft is warning their sites and forums were subject to a "hack attempt" over the weekend and users should consider changing their passwords:

Over the past weekend, a hacker group attempted an unlawful intrusion of our websites to gain access to data. We believe we have taken appropriate action to protect our data against these attacks. While no personal financial information or credit card data was obtained, the hackers may have gained access to some user names, email addresses, and/or passwords. As a precaution, we recommend that all our fans immediately change passwords on all our sites — including our community forums, statistics site for Brink, and here on the blog.

If your username/email address/password is similar to what you use on other sites, we recommend changing the password at those sites as well. As we don’t know what further plans the hackers may have, we suggest that you keep an eye out for suspicious emails and account activity.

We regret any inconvenience that these attacks on us cause for you. These attacks will be evaluated to determine if there are any additional protections we might take that would be prudent.

The latest Bethesda podcast is on offer, which celebrates the 5th Anniversary of Oblivion:

Before we look forward to Skyrim, we first look back to Oblivion.

Last week we marked the fifth anniversary of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s release. In this episode of the podcast, we revisit the game that served as a landmark for Bethesda. Listen as key team members recount their memories of working on the project, followed by a roundtable discussion with Todd Howard and Pete Hines.

OXM UK has a podcast featuring Peter Hines. I haven't listened to it, so I don't know if it is interesting but head over if you're feeling brave.

VG247 has a grab-box interview with Pete Hines covering everything from Doom 4 to Fallout: New Vegas.  They given away the most interesting snippets in promo bits during the week and Pete doesn't reveal much, so in the end, it's not that interesting.  A sample:

Would it be safe to assume we’ll see more DLC packs this year for New Vegas?

Oh absolutely. I don’t think we’ve ever had a product where we said, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna do one DLC pack and that’s all she wrote’. We like to support our products. We like to do a good job of that, and I don’t think putting out one DLC pack would reach that. I would say you can look for other stuff from us down the road.

I realise they are independent, but do you see Obsidian very much part of the future of Fallout now in any way?

Our involvement with them right now is Fallout: New Vegas and downloadable content. We’re going to continue to work with them and what relationship we have with them on any possible products down the road is to be determined.

More to-ing and fro-ing with Pete Hines claiming unequivocal rights to a Fallout MMO in an interview with VG247 - and Eric Caen responding with the opposite and adding the claim Interplay has the right to develop Fallout 6 if Bethsoft blocks them from the MMO.  A sample:

He continued: “We own the rights to everything Fallout. The licence is ours. Fallout belongs to us. That’s what I’ll clarify.

Podcast #6 from Bethsoft is now available:

This brief, but boisterous episode of the Bethesda Podcast includes a discussion of Todd’s trip to the VGAs, his thoughts on keeping secrets, info on where to hear more about Skyrim in the coming weeks, and a bonus John Carmack story.

Todd Howard has surprised onlookers at the Spike Video Game Awards by revealing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - due for release on the rather cool 11.11.11.  Here's the teaser trailer, courtesy of Gametrailers:

The latest Bethsoft podcast is up:

The fourth episode of the Bethesda Podcast may not tell you how to beat New Vegas, but it will certainly help a little!

To kick things off, we welcome a new member studio to the growing ZeniMax family. Then it’s on to a long talk with Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide writer David Hodgson, who divulges plenty of hints and tips for would-be wastelanders.

Next-Gen quotes Interplay President Eric Caen about the sale of the Fallout rights to Bethsoft.  Apparently Interplay wanted $50M  for everything including the MMO rights, which was too much for Bethsoft:

"Hervé [Caen] started negotiations with Bethesda to sell Fallout to them," reveals Eric. "My brother said: 'If you want the full IP, the value of it is $50 million.' They said: 'No way. Why $50 million?' We said: 'Because the MMOG strength of this universe is huge.' Bethesda said: 'We don’t want that. Let’s buy everything else but the MMOG. Do the MMOG.' They said that Interplay had to start development and by a certain time we had to have a full game in development."

Eric says he thinks that Bethesda, on realising the value of the original proposition, wanted to reclaim a stake in the project."

I'm not sure how much value this Bethsoft podcast will have for RPG players but the guys from Arkane might be worth a listen:

We kick off this week’s episode with a few stories from PAX and a big bag of reader mail. Then a short tale on the first QuakeCon is told, and Harvey Smith and Raphael Colantonio of Arkane Studios join us to talk about immersive games.

A minor item for players but Bethsoft continues their quest for world domination with the opening of a new Benelux office:

Bethesda Softworks, a ZeniMax Media company, today announced the continued expansion of its global operations, opening a Benelux office in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Bethesda Softworks, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, currently has international offices located in London, Tokyo, Paris, and Frankfurt.

The Benelux office will directly oversee sales and marketing across The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg, underscoring Bethesda Softworks’ commitment to its global publishing operations. With the opening of a new office comes the appointment of a new territory General Manager. Menno Eijck joins Bethesda Softworks as Managing Director, Benelux, having previously held the position of General Manager for Namco Bandai Partners, Benelux.

Bethsoft now has their own podcast and the first episode is up.  The blurb from the Bethblog:

With a blend of studio news and casual discussion, the Bethesda Podcast will offer an inside look at a wide range of subjects. Our first episode kicks off with a quick update on Fallout: New Vegas from senior producer Jason Bergman, including a sampling of the game’s unique soundtrack. Then it’s on to a lengthy talk with Bethesda’s Todd Howard and id Software’s Tim Willits on a number of topics, including QuakeCon, post-apocalyptic games, and what the two studios are working on.

Head over to the podcast page to stream or download the ‘cast, and hit the RSS feed to subscribe. The episode will also be available on iTunes in the near future.

Eurogamer spoke with Bethsoft's Todd Howard at QuakeCon.  We discover that Arkane's game was going to be published by Bethsoft before the acquisition, Bethesda Game Studios has one game deep in development and another in pre-production and more:

Eurogamer: So even id has now gone to two teams, but you guys still seem to be doing one thing at a time. Is there any appetite to change that?

Todd Howard: We kind of overlap, so Fallout 3 was overlapped into Oblivion, so we'll be doing design. We have about 90 people on the team, but not everyone is on the main game. Most people are. We spent time on Fallout 3 during Oblivion so when Oblivion was done we had a design, a concept, and some stuff running for Fallout 3 so we could move the bulk of people onto it.

Likewise with the new game, we were working on it during Fallout 3. We had design, we had concepts, we had stuff we knew we wanted to do.

But it is one big team, and the nice thing about that is it's everybody's game. We have one culture. I spend a lot of my time on the game that's in pre-production, but the new game that's percolating takes the most of my time.

Todd Howard has been quizzed at Industry Gamers in a general conversation that ranges from the Wii to QuakeCon.  There's not much new for RPG fans but I found this question amusing:

IG: You mentioned Fallout, and you guys are publishing the Obsidian-developed Fallout: New Vegas. Are you overseeing that to make sure it lives up to the Fallout legacy? There was some concern about the last Obsidian developed game. I think it was for Sega, Alpha Protocol; there were some bugs and some complaints about that. I’m wondering about your relationship with Obsidian and [are you] monitoring the Fallout…

TH: No, no, no; we pretty much handed it over. I think Fallout: New Vegas really benefits because the Obsidian guys are some of the original developers of Fallout. It’s a situation where they know it really well and they have the tech and everything from Fallout 3 to build on, and it was important to us. The best game is going to result from them doing the game that they want to do, and we really liked their pitch. I’ve talked to them. If they have questions about stuff, they’ll ask our opinion. We want to make it so that they can make the Fallout game that they feel is best, and at the end of the day, they know it really well. If it was somebody else, we probably might have to [say]: “Hey, no, that’s not the way it works in Fallout,” but they know it inside and out. They helped create a lot of it. It’s been a really good situation.

Bethsoft and Stardock have announced the Bethsoft game lineup is now available on Impulse if that is your favourite digital vendor.

Bethsoft's Game Director Todd Howard has been interviewed in a podcast at Irrational Games in a conversation lead by Ken Levine.  I haven't had the chance to listen to it but apparently the two are old friends, so it might be an interesting listen:

For the pilot episode we are happy to have Todd Howard, Executive Producer and Game Director from Bethesda Softworks.  Howard has been at Bethesda since 1994, with countless classics under his belt including The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and most recently Fallout 3. Howard is well known for his sense of humor and his drive to make great games.

Bethsoft has kicked off a new blog series called About Game Development.  The first entry is titled Broken Windows and essentially discusses their QA philosophy.  This isn't specifically about RPGs but fans might still be interested:

This makes for lots of challenges, and among those challenges is the shifting sands of years of development by dozens of programmers. In the sixteen years since we released The Elder Scrolls: Arena, there have been a lot of changes in the ways games are made (and in the sizes of teams needed to make them) and choices that made sense on the PC-only market we started sometimes make less sense in the light of changing times. Taking this with the constant influx of gameplay, art, and code to a running game in development, one of the biggest hidden risks is “Broken Windows”.

Several sites are running the rumour that Elder Scrolls V will be announced at E3.  The story is based on comments to Japanese magazine Famitsu, with Bethsoft apparently indicating they have a "secret" up their sleeves for E3.  They recently sent us their E3 lineup and gave no hints of a surprise but no doubt everyone expects the game sooner or later.  VG247 is one of the sites running the story.

Bethesda moves another step toward world domination with new offices in France and Germany:

BETHESDA SOFTWORKS EXPANDS GLOBAL OPERATIONS

Bethesda Softworks Opens Offices in France and Germany

April 29, 2010 (London, UK) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, today announced the expansion of its global operations, opening offices in Frankfurt, Germany and Paris, France. Bethesda Softworks, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland currently has international offices located in London and Tokyo. The opening of the two new European offices marks another exciting step forward for Bethesda Softworks, best known for publishing titles from two of the world’s top development studios – Bethesda Game Studios and id Software.

Both offices will directly oversee sales and marketing in their respective territories, underscoring Bethesda Softworks’ commitment to its global publishing operations. With the opening of the new offices comes the appointment of two new territory General Managers. Frank Matzke joins Bethesda Softworks as Managing Director, Germany and Julie Chalmette joins as Managing Director, France. Prior to joining Bethesda Softworks Frank Matzke was Vice President, Europe at Sierra Entertainment and Marketing Director, Central Europe at Vivendi Games. Julie Chalmette joins Bethesda Softworks after having previously held the position of General Manager for Vivendi Games France.

“The opening of offices in Frankfurt and Paris is a very exciting moment for Bethesda Softworks. We have an incredible roster of upcoming AAA games including Fallout®: New Vegas™, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge™, Brink™ and RAGE™,” said Sean Brennan, Managing Director, Bethesda Softworks Europe. “Frank and Julie’s extensive knowledge of their territories will help us to maximise and deliver upon these titles’ potential”.

For more information about Bethesda Softworks, please visit www.bethsoft.com

I think we'll give up on this lawsuit, because it's uninteresting and we don't seem to get it right, with Kotaku and Peter Hines from Bethsoft pointing out the legal dramas aren't over at all.

Bethsoft has dropped their lawsuit against Interplay, which presumably paves the way forward forward for Project V13 / Fallout Online.  Full details at Duck and Cover.

Chris Avellone gets the Inside the Vault profile treatment at the Bethblog in not-very-serious-mode:

Thus far, what’s been the highlight of your career?

Threatened by Ron Perlman. He was just tired. In the next game we had him in, I had the privilege of telling him he was playing a transvestite dragon. Great times. Fearful times.

Actually, I take that back. Being in the studio with Sheena Easton was great, she’s funny and tells great stories.

It seems a bit strange to file a profile of Feargus Urquhart under "Bethsoft" but that's where the others are, so I'll stick with it for consistency.  So, Feargus Urquhart, courtesy of the Bethblog:

Since founding the studio, how do you think your role has changed?

The biggest change in my role is that I spend less time doing very specific things on the games we are working on. What I mean is that I don’t do things like edit data files or get art into the game.

Even though that’s the case, I do try and spend as much time on working on the games as possible. For example, on Knights of the Old Republic 2 we were on a pretty tight schedule and budget, so everyone needed to pitch in. I became the guy who put art props (beds, chests, lamps, etc…), creatures and characters into the game.

Bit of a slow start to the week, so let's take this piece from Platform Nation on what they'd like to see in the next Elder Scrolls game:

Leveling/XP System

A return to Morrowind will suffice for this I think. Fallout 3’s leveling system is Fallout, not the Elder Scrolls, but in Oblivion there were alot of faults. I think we need more varied skills, like Morrowind. Oblivion was dumbed down in that Blade encompassed many different weapon types. I want to see the return on Long Blade, Short Blade etc.

On the subject of leveling is also the world itself. I think after Fallout 3 Bethesda will go back to Morrowind, making the world static, and the character evolving around it; not the other way around. I want to be able to know I can’t handle a certain region of the world yet, go away and train, then come back and kick some ass.

The first Inside the Vault dev profile for Fallout: New Vegas is up, with QA lead Andrew Scharf questioned about his background.

"Unnamed sources" abound in this newsbit, so we are firmly in rumour territory.  That said, it doesn't take a genius to work out that Bethsoft's parent company is doing something with their online division and it makes sense to use one of their successful existing IPs...and since they've denied working on a Fallout MMO in court, that makes an Elder Scrolls MMO seem a good bet.

Anyway, Duck and Cover claims Bethsoft has applied to get some court statements redacted - here's the relevant bit:

The big trade secret?: Bethesda has "tens and tens of millions of dollars" and "close to a hundred people"working on a "secret" "World Of Warcraft" type MMO and they don't want their competitors knowing about it. They've been working on it pretty heavily since 2007 after assigning the team in late 2006. According to testimony given by Bethesda, the development timetable for an MMO is 4 years, so that would mean they would be releasing this game next year.

VG247 then goes on to say they are "reliably informed" it's an Elder Scrolls MMO and it missed the planned reveal last year.  No surprises there, if true.

Out of the blue the Bethblog has a new Inside the Vault feature with a profile of Ashley Cheng:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m the Production Director (fancy name for producer) for Bethesda Game Studios. I’m responsible for the day to day of the development team, scheduling and budgets, QA and testing, localization, running team meetings when Todd Howard is traveling, game library procurement, weekend and evening catering, commissioner of our Madden online franchise league, purchaser of buckets to collect rain water leaking from our ceiling. I’m the last one who touches our games before they go out into the world to be replicated, boxed and shipped out to stores and/or downloaded via Steam/Xbox LIVE/PlayStation Network, etc… My office is full of gold masters of every version of every game we’ve shipped since 2001. I have one of the best jobs anybody could ever wish for.

A site called The Next Level has an interview with Bethsoft's Emil Pagliarulo.  There doesn't seem to be any particular reason for the conversation, so the topics range across Oblivion and Fallout 3:

TNL: When it was first announced that Bethesda would be making Fallout 3, many gamers were convinced it would just be Oblivion with guns. I'm curious as to what you thought of that. Also, with the success Fallout 3 has enjoyed what, in your opinion, did it do better then Oblivion?

Emil: Yeah, the whole “Oblivion with Guns” criticism was hurled our way so long ago. But it’s funny, because in order for that to resonate with you, you have to sort of feel that Oblivion isn’t a good game, and “Oblivion with Guns” would be a bad thing. Well… we think Oblivion is a damn good game. And so did millions of people who bought it. And scores of reviewers. So, you know, we started to realize, “Hey, that’s more a compliment than an insult, isn’t it?” So for us, Fallout 3 is “Oblivion with guns” in all the right ways. Meaning, you wander around a huge world, and talk to lots of interesting characters, and get lots of quests. But instead of killing them with a magic sword, you kill them with a gun that shoots teddy bears.

But, of course, we learned a lot of lessons making Oblivion. And there were certainly things we wanted to do better. Our tech on Fallout was far beyond what we had on Oblivion – the game looks better, load times are faster, etc. So there’s certainly that. But we also really upped our game with the writing, and quest design, and player consequences. So, in all, I think Fallout 3 is a more cohesive experience than Oblivion.

Well, well, well.  It turns out all the controversy over the (missing) next Elder Scrolls was a pretty bad mis-quote.  Here's Pete Hines, courtesy of Kotaku:

That was not a direct quote from him. That was someone's interpretation of what he said. I know, I was there. At his QuakeCon talk he was asked when TESV is coming out and Todd replied, "Don't look for a new Elder Scrolls game in the near future." He also went on to say how much the franchise means to us and that it definitely will continue. He just wasn't going to provide any timeframe on "when." This should not be news to anyone that has been paying attention. Both Todd and I have said repeatedly that, of course, we're going to do another Elder Scrolls game. The last one was enormously popular. So was the one before that. You get the idea. So do we.

Speaking at QuakeCon, Todd Howard has answered a question about Bethsoft's future by saying they have "no current plans" for an Elder Scrolls 5.  Obviously they won't miss exploiting this most successful franchise, so the question is exactly what this comment really means.  From The Big Download:

Howard took a few questions from the audience but didn't give out much info on their future projects, saying only, "We are working on our next big game but we are not talking about it." Don't look a new Elder Scrolls game in the near future; Howard said there are no current plans for an "Elder Scrolls 5." As far as an Elders Scrolls based MMO, he said in jest, "There's always a chance." He gave no new info on the third party developed Fallout: New Vegas, due out next year. He did confirm that they are through with creating any more Fallout 3 DLC content.

We used to hear more of Ashley Cheng than we do now but the Bethblog is pointing out an interview with the production director at GameObserver.  The questions are general and spend quite a bit of time on their choice of engine:

GameObserver: After Oblivion, what made you guys decide to reuse the Gamebryo engine for Fallout 3?

Ashley Cheng: Gamebryo allowed us to get up and running very quickly with Morrowind. Since then, we’ve taken this core technology and added new features on top of it. We’ve actually had the guys at Gamebryo come to us, and ask if we would be interested in a particular shader or feature, only to turn them down and say, sorry, but we’ve already written our own version. With each new project, we scope how much time we have and decide which systems to upgrade. A major reason many projects are delayed or never ship is because the developers decide to start from scratch. Games these days cost way too much for that kind of reboot. For most programmers, it’s easier to write new code than to read old code -- it takes a lot of discipline to selectively upgrade parts of your technology and to maintain others.

Todd Howard talks to Planet Elder Scrolls about the 15 years of the franchise.  Here's a sample:

How did the Idea for The Elder Scrolls series begin 15 years ago? (What was the inspiration behind it? What did it develop from? Etc.)
Arena actually started as a gladiator game, and over time morphed into a giant RPG, as more and more elements got added to it. It even featured a party system at one point. The main inspiration for The Elder Scrolls comes from games like Ultima Underworld, Darklands, and Legends of Valour. And of course, D&D. The whole idea was to do a grand RPG, where you could do pretty much whatever you wanted.

Was the lore for The Elder Scrolls written or completely thought of 15 years ago? Or has The Elder Scrolls lore been developing over time? And if so, is the Elder Scrolls lore still in development? Or is it finished?
It was not completely written in the beginning at all. We add stuff with every game. Obviously the main world, races and timeline were set by Arena. Daggerfall gets into the rulers and politics of the world more; kind of the people behind the places. There was a lot of new lore done between Daggerfall and Morrowind. You can see this in Redguard. We made a real effort to make the world of the Tamriel more unique than the standard Tolkien or D&D stuff. I don’t see it as ever finished. We’ll add to it with each new game in some fashion.

This surprising PM came in a few minutes ago. The id founders cash in their chips and Bethesda gets several valuable brands and id's technology.

ZeniMax Media Acquires id Software

Brings together two of world’s best game studios

Library of powerhouse franchises will include DOOM, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, QUAKE, Wolfenstein and RAGE

June 24, 2009  (Rockville, MD) – ZeniMax Media Inc., parent company of noted game publisher Bethesda Softworks, today announced it has completed the acquisition of legendary game studio, id Software, creators of world-renowned games such as DOOM, QUAKE, Wolfenstein, and its upcoming title, RAGE. The acquisition by ZeniMax Media joins together two of the finest, most respected videogame developers in the world, combining the first person shooter (FPS) expertise of id Software with acclaimed role playing game (RPG) developer Bethesda Game Studios – creators of the 2008 Game of the Year, Fallout 3, and the 2006 Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Bethesda Softworks will publish the titles of id Software other than upcoming releases previously committed to other publishers.

Founded in 1991, id Software established itself as an industry leader with some of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed video games of all time. id Software created the original first-person shooter, Wolfenstein 3D, and subsequently set new standards in the genre with the blockbuster releases of its DOOM and QUAKE titles. In addition, id Software developed cutting edge, proprietary technology with the id Tech engine which powers many notable FPS titles, and continues to make great advances in game technology under the direction of John Carmack, one of the country’s technology leaders and a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) Hall of Fame.

Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software, commented on the transaction: “This was a unique opportunity to team with a smart, sophisticated publisher like Bethesda Softworks where the interests of the studio and the publisher will be fully aligned in the development and marketing of our titles.  In addition, we will now have financial and business resources to support the future growth of id Software, a huge advantage which will result in more and even better games for our fans.”

id Software will continue to operate as a studio under the direction of its founder, John Carmack.  No changes will be made in the operations of id Software in the development of its games. All the principals at id Software have signed long-term employment contracts, assuring they will continue in their roles developing games at the studio.

“This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward,” said John Carmack, who will continue to serve in his current role as Technical Director.  “We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof, leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward looking research to be done in the service of all of them.  We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future.  As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am."

Robert Altman, the founder, Chairman & CEO of ZeniMax Media stated, “We, along with many others, consider id Software to be among the finest game studios in the world, with extraordinary design, artistic and technical capabilities. They have demonstrated, repeatedly, that rare ability to create franchise properties that are critical and commercial successes. Our intention is to make sure id Software will continue to do what they do best – make AAA games. Our role will be to provide publisher support through Bethesda Softworks and give id Software the resources it needs to grow and expand.”

A new Inside the Vault profile at the Bethblog chats to artist Nathan Purkeypile:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I am a world artist. On Fallout 3, I was tasked with doing passes on most of the major locations in the game to make sure that they were all as polished as possible. I also created some of the cities, such as Little Lamplight and Tenpenny Tower. Besides that, I also created some of the kits for dungeons, such as the cave kit and the neoclassical kit. I also lit about half of the interior cells in the game. After we shipped Fallout 3, I was heavily involved in a lot of the DLC, especially Point Lookout. I was the Lead Artist and Co-Designer on that project, it was a ton of fun to work on and you can blame all of the crazy ideas on Joel Burgess and me.

The Bethblog has news that Oblivion and Morrowind packs are now available on Steam:

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year includes Morrowind and its expansions, Tribunal and Bloodmoon (available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian).

For Oblivion, you’ll have two different options to choose from. You can get The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year — which includes Oblivion plus expansions, Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles (available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian).

Or get the “never available before in one package” called The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe, which features Oblivion, Knights of the Nine, Shivering Isles and all the downloadable content, which includes the following (available only in English):

• Horse Armor Pack
• Wizard’s Tower
• The Orrery
• Thieves Den
• Spell Tomes
• Vile Lair
• Mehrunes’ Razor
• Fighter’s Stronghold

According to Kotaku, Bethsoft will reveal their next title via Thursday's episode of Gametrailers TV on Spike.  Of course, we have no idea what they game might be, with possibilities from TES V to a third party title.

That same episode will also have Mass Effect 2 footage, for those interested.

This one is based on a strange premise in my opinion but Angry Gamers comes to the defence of Interplay, concluding the contract terms for Fallout Online are unfair and calling the process a "sleazy form of license acquisition":

Bethesda's parent company Zenimax, has reared its ugly head and turned Bethesda into an evil pawn in this sleazy form of license acquisition.  These are the conditions set by Bethesda to allow Interplay to complete their MMO, you tell me if this seems fair:

• No single player or offline mode in any way.
• Must be for PC or Mac only, no ports to console whatesoever.
• Minimum of 10,000 monthly subscribers.
• Furthermore, Interplay must enter "full-scale" development of the MMO with a minimum of $30 million in funding by two years from the signing of the agreement, or it immediately forfeits its rights to the license.
• Interplay may not sublicense any part of MMO development without Bethesda's approval.
• The MMO "must meet or exceed such quality standards as may be set by Bethesda from time to time" in order for Interplay to remain in good standing, and Bethesda has the right to inspect Interplay's offices and development progress at any time during normal business hours provided two days' notice is given.
• The company must launch the game in North America and Europe within four years of that development commencement date, with the potential for a one-year extension if development is progressing adequately, giving the game a final release date limit of April 9, 2014
• In return for granting Interplay the MMO rights, Bethesda will receive royalties of 12% of sales, subscription fees, or other revenue generated by the game. 

GamesIndustry.biz has a business-focused 2-part interview with Bethsoft Europe managing director, Sean Brennan.  Most of the conversation will only be of interest to those that follow the business side, although the piece does reveal European sales of 2M units for Fallout 3 and has some insight into their DLC philosophy:

Q: Do you see a significant jump in sales of Fallout 3 boxed product when you release big downloadable content update like The Pitt or Broken Steel?

Sean Brennan: If you look at the market generally, what you tend to find in terms of the longevity of a product life-cycle, often you find that if it's a huge multiplayer game it tends to sell for longer. And you can directly correlate that to word of mouth. Opinion-formers are talking about Call of Duty because they're still playing it online, it's top of their consciousness. That's what multiplayer does for a title if it's good enough.

What DLC does, particularly with Fallout 3 as it's not a multiplayer game, what that again does is gets the word of mouth going, it revitalises the whole thing. People start talking about it and those that own the original game, they're playing the DLC and the word of mouth spreads. Fallout 3 came out in October and it's still very much being talked about now. It passes on by a process of osmosis in to the marketplace. It really does help sales. And it's a marketing tool to a large degree, it's extending the playing experience of the original game but it's also marketing the original game as well.

Part 1 and Part 2.

Pete Hines fronts an interview with SPOnG ranges over a variety of topics, although Pete avoids anything interesting with no comment on further FO3 DLC plans or Obsidian's New Vegas.  So, here's the only informative bit:

SPOnG: Will there be enough quest experience to be had in Broken Steel for players to level up to 30 without having to grind on pre-DLC quests/enemies?

Pete Hines: No, probably not, and that wasn't the intention. The intention was to remove the level cap so that if you have Broken Steel, regardless of whether you want to play that quest or not, or you want to start a new game from scratch, you can continue playing beyond level 20. Again, fans wanted to be able to take their characters to higher levels, so we included it. But it is not specific to the length of Broken Steel, at all. It is a very long climb to get from 20 to 30 and you'll need to do a LOT to get there.

Designer John Paul Duvall sits down for the Inside the Vault treatment:

I enjoy that the role of a designer is so varied. Some days I’m dreaming up people, places, and adventures for the player to experience. Other days I’m poring over spreadsheets trying to figure out how to tweak numbers to make some game system balanced and fun. Other days I’m abusing the scripting system making the game do things it wasn’t meant to do (winning stern looks from programmers).

Another joy that comes only after releasing a game is reading what players are saying about it. Making videogames is about giving agency to players, giving them an experience in which they can lose themselves, expressing their unique personalities within the world we’ve created for them.  When we hear from them, it’s the best reward we can get. We make games for our players; it’s important for us to know what they think and feel about the experience.

PC World's Matt Peckham (yes, him) looks past Bethsoft's recent Fallout: New Vegas announcement to the Elder Scrolls V, with a list of five things he'd like to see changed from Oblivion:

1. Don't recycle your voice actors. Okay, I get that Oblivion's a Really Big Game and you probably blew two-thirds of your budget snagging Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean and Lynda Carter, but stellar as the less-well-known acting talent is here, modulating accents and vocal timbres doesn't scrub out the distinctly evil-overlord-shtick guys like Craig Sechler have going on (who does this sound like?). Given the choice between "voiceless text" and "recycled voice acting" audio? I'll take text plus my own imagination, please.

Joystiq noticed this trademark filing:

Spotted on the US Patent and Trademark Office website recently were two suspicious trademarks filed by Bethesda Softworks, the folks behind the Elder Scrolls series and, most recently, Fallout 3. First, a trademark staking claim on the Fallout name for "entertainment services in the nature of an on-going television program," hinting pretty heavily at the possibility of a Fallout-themed ... television program. Another filing secures the trademark for "motion picture films about a post-nuclear apocalyptic world." We imagine you get the gist of that one, eh?

Peter Hines talks to Gamesindustry.biz about DLC and their relationship with Zenimax.  Here's a bit on expanding the market, and who'd have thought the X360 would save the "hardcore" gamer from pink ponies?

Q: How are you reaching out to a broader demographic?

Pete Hines: There is no magic thing that you can do. There is no magic number of ads, there's no one place, there's no one aspect of your campaign. Part of it is what is the game you're doing and what is the experience, and can a more casual person get that?

For example, with the experience site we put together for Fallout, the whole idea for it was to present Fallout in a way that people will think is cool regardless of whether they obsess over it daily or they had never heard of it. We present the game to them in a way that is cool, interesting, and engaging. It doesn't matter what their level of knowledge was coming in; they were simply able to get it.

The key thing is that once they get it, it is something that they actually want to get. If Fallout was a game about riding pink ponies through an enchanted forest, you're going to fail because that's not something cool or fun. A more casual person still wants to play games. You're marketing an Xbox 360 game. Even if you're trying to go more casual, you're still selling it to somebody who owns a 360. They have some knowledge of what gaming is.

The Bethblog has a reminder of the process to transfer DLC licenses from one X360 to another, for those in that situation.

Pete Hines' latest interview is with Gamasutra, discussing their approach to DLC:

With Oblivion, you obviously tried a number of different things. There was some backlash with the horse armor and all of that, which at this point I guess has been discussed to death, but you also went to the other extreme in terms of volume of content. Did you learn some big lessons from that experience?

PH: Definitely, because we did the entire spectrum for the most part. We did small things and then we did the really huge thing [with The Shivering Isles]. We did what I think was the first ever full expansion on a console for download. We looked at what we liked and what we didn't, and what the people liked.

What we discovered was that we want to be able to do stuff that doesn't take a year to come out.

All these people are out there playing our game by the hundreds of thousands on a daily basis and we want to be able to bring those folks something they could do in a much shorter time frame, rather than just saying, "See you next year." That instantly ruled out doing a big expansion because those things just take so damn long to do.

So we started looking at the biggest stuff we'd done that people really liked, but that we could do in smaller, digestible chunks.

That's where we came to the Knights of the Nine model -- it's substantive and it adds multiple hours of game play and new items, but we can do it in a time frame that allows us to get it out without waiting forever. That's what we've gone for with Fallout 3.

Jangjoon Cha is the latest dev profile from Bethsoft.  Jangjoon is an artist who mostly does character animations...

What is the best part about being an artist? The worst part?
The best part about my role in the character artist department is that I get to breathe life into the amazing models that the people here have created. Animating the models to give them purpose and characteristics and seeing that in game has been an awesome experience. Also, I have had the chance to work and get to know the great people here from other departments. I often have to talk to designers and level designers to get information on the my animation task. Some are to make NPCs interact with the world and some are quest related. Whatever it is,  it feel good providing animations that make a quest or area feel more interesting.

Designer Fred Zeleny fronts up for the Bethblog's Inside the Vault dev profiles:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m a Quest Designer, which means I spend most of my time writing quests, dialogue for characters, and occasionally get to have a hand in systems and mechanics designs. “Designer” is a very vague term, and every company defines it differently. The only part of the job description that every company seems to agree on is that designers have two vital tasks:

1. Making sure the player has an enjoyable experience while playing the game.

Disagreeing with other designers about how to do #1.

The official Fallout 3 site is pointing out three developer interviews across the 'net.  Here's a rip of their post:

Gametrailers has a new interview up with Todd Howard from this year's D.I.C.E Summit. Elsewhere, Fallout 3 Environment Artist Rashad Redic has an interview at CG Society, while Designer Erik J. Caponi answers questions about mature games at Kotaku.

Meanwhile, the Bethblog is pointing out a Pete Hines appearance at Major Nelson's podcast (at 23.02 into the show) and an interview at Talking about Games, both for The Pitt DLC, which is due for release tomorrow.  I haven't seen this come up before:

Can players revisit Pittsburgh once the quests are finished, or will their excursion be a one-time trip?

JG: The players can revisit The Pitt and there are a handful of repeatable quests, unique vendors, and the city will be affected by the decisions the player made to solve the quest.

The Bethblog's Inside the Vault returns, speaking with video producer Matt Killmon:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m the video producer at ZeniMax Media, which means I do all the video work for Bethesda’s internal and external projects, as well as other games published by ZeniMax’s mobile gaming division, Vir2L. Trailers, promo footage, b-roll for news organizations, even in-game video… anything that’s video is my responsibility.

Bethsoft Production Director Ashley Cheng tackles the perfect game idea on the Bethblog:

If only making a game could be reduced to a singular, perfect idea — a romanticized act, full of mystery, that one performs alone like Michelangelo, dimly lit by candlelight, on his back painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

It’s a lie, of course. The painting of the Sistine Chapel was the work of an army of assistants, carpenters building scaffolding, laborers mining limestone, Craft food services, one Pope, and lots of other people who I couldn’t even begin to imagine.

This one is for fans (or anti-fans) of Bethsoft, only.  The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has a 10-question Q&A with Todd Howard on his game development outlook.  None of the answers provide deep insight but fans might find it worth a look:

Q: What game are you most jealous of?

A: Currently? GTA IV. Big ideas, clear vision, and gets the little things right.


Q: What's your favorite part of game development?

A: It's the small victories, when the game is really working, you're playing it and you see an opportunity to make something more fun, by either removing something, adding something, or tweaking a game balance number. I think it's easy to dream big, but the fine details are where it happens. Using what’s at your disposal to squeeze out even more fun is very rewarding.

Put your hand up if you hadn't already assumed this...publishing exec for Bethsoft Paul Houghton has commented that the next Elder Scrolls installment is penciled in for 2010.  From GamesIndustry:

Fallout 3 publisher Bethesda has indicated that the next title in the hugely popular Elder Scrolls series will be released in 2010.

Paul Oughton, publishing executive for Bethesda, also said that although the market for the Wii and DS has opened up more varied publishing opportunities, the company doesn't have any current plans to release titles for Nintendo consoles.

"At the moment we've got Fallout 3 for this year and potentially there's a new Elder Scrolls title in 2010," said Oughton. "At the moment we're not that interested in the Wii. We're going to stick to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. We'll continue to pursue three or four titles a year and go for big titles," he said of the company's publishing plans for the future.

 Artist Rashad Redic gets the Inside the Vault treatment at the Bethblog:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m an environment artist — not so much the landscaping but more of the physical structures and props, and textures you’ll see throughout your travels in the wasteland. I’ve also done a large amount of our dungeon lighting.

Terry Dunn is next up with the Inside the Vault treatment at the Bethblog:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I am a quality assurance tester, which basically means I get to play games for a living. While it may sound like a glorified position to some, it actually requires persistence, conviction, and thoroughness. It’s my job to track down issues in our games, find a way to reproduce it if possible, and then write a report up for it and submit it to the developers for review. When fixes come in, I double check it to make sure the problem has been resolved.

Fallout 3 level designer Daryl Brigner gets the Inside the Vault treatment:

What is the best part about working as a level designer? The worst part?
Well, I never get tired of creating worlds for people to explore. So, I’d have to say the best part is the freedom to do what I want. When you’re designing your own world/dungeon, the only limitation is your imagination. And, that brings me to the worst part.

Not having any idea what you are going to do with a certain dungeon/space, but still having to get it done.  This can be very stressful. When I’m faced with this dilemma like this I go to my fellow Level Designers for ideas. We always come up with something, but it’s still aggravating to have your mind go blank when you are searching for ideas.

Is this a surprise to anyone?  Eurogamer and 1Up are both pointing out some comments Pete Hines made to different sites.  From Eurogamer:

"The whole reason we went out and acquired the licence and that we now own Fallout is that we clearly intended to make more than one," Hines told TVG. "This is not something we're going to do once and then go away and never do it again.

"When that will be or how long that will be god only knows, but we acquired it specifically because we wanted to own it and develop it and work on it like we do with The Elder Scrolls," he added.

Lawyer-turned-producer Angela Browder is next up for the Bethblog's Inside the Vault:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I am an associate producer in charge of the character artists and animators. I also look out for our sound guy and concept artist when needed. On a daily basis that means I assign tasks and bugs, work on long term scheduling, and keep tabs on making sure that people are on track with dates. I consider it a big part of my job to do what I can to make things easier for people to get their jobs done — whether this be acting as a liaison between departments, wrangling decisions from those who need to make decisions or just acting as an ear during times of frustration.

Interface programmer Dan Teitel gets the Inside the Vault treatment at the Bethblog:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I am a programmer. I am largely responsible for portions of the interface but have also worked on the weather system for Oblivion and other aspects of the game, as well. My prize claim in Fallout 3 is the Hacking minigame which I was primarily responsible for implementing and also helped design along with Erik Deitrick, Emil Pagliarulo, and Todd Howard.

Bethesda and Splash Damge have penned a long-term deal according to Develop.

Multiplayer games specialist Splash Damage has signed a long-term development partnership with Bethesda.

The London-based studio will develop a brand-new game for the publisher, best known for the internally-developed Oblivion title for Xbox 360, and which recently expanded its operations into both Europe and Japan.

Splash Damage is best known for its work creating multiplayer components for the likes of Doom 3 and Wolfenstein. It was formed by Paul Wedgewood in 2001 and staffed by key members of the mod-making community. It’s first fully-owned boxed game Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, the latest in its long-running collaboration with id Software, debuted last year. More details on its work with Bethesda are due in the coming months.

Inside the Vault turns to Liz Beetem, who recently graduated from intern to character artist:

What other games have you worked on?
None! Which makes me feel ridiculously lucky because I thought I was going to have to pay my dues working at fly-by-night studios where the employees would all have to draw straws to see who’s going to give potential investors their foot massages, and if we ever managed to get a game close to done the publishers would yank it out of our hands, and throw it onto the market prematurely where we could watch our baby gasp and sputter and die, choking on a pool of its own game-breaking bugs. The fact that the first game I’m working on is the first real Fallout game in like ten years would make me go insane from pressure if I thought about it too hard.

It seems none of the other editors will post this, so I will. ZeniMax Media, owner of Bethesda Softworks, has opened an Asian office called ZeniMax Asia for publishing of titles under the Bethesda brand.
Tetsu Takahashi, who was responsible for the release of Oblivion (X360, PS3) in Japan last year, is heading the new office. Pete Hines has this to say of him: "Really smart guy with a good team around him." 
Below is the press release sent to us by Pete Hines:

April 28, 2008 (Rockville, MD) – ZeniMax Media Inc., the parent company of Bethesda Softworks®, today announced it has begun direct publishing operations in Asia with the establishment of its Tokyo-based subsidiary, ZeniMax Asia K.K.  ZeniMax Asia will be publishing titles throughout Asian territories under the Bethesda Softworks brand.

Bethesda Softworks has a successful history as a developer and publisher of award-winning titles, most recently with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion®, which won critical acclaim and countless Game of the Year awards.  While continuing to work with strategic Asian distribution partners, ZeniMax Asia plans to deliver a range of compelling titles in the coming years, including the highly anticipated Fallout® 3.

“Establishing operations in Asia is very important to us as we continue to expand our presence in markets outside of North America,” said Robert Altman, CEO of ZeniMax Media Inc. “In addition to ZeniMax Europe Ltd., our direct relationships throughout Asia allow us to bring exciting titles like Fallout® 3 to gamers across the globe.”

The Asian operations of the Company will be headed by Tetsu Takahashi, General Manager, ZeniMax Asia KK. “We are happy to be part of the ZeniMax family,” said Tetsu. “Extending their direct reach throughout Asia is an exciting, new phase in the Company’s expansion and we look forward to building upon their excellent reputation.”

For more information on ZeniMax media visit www.zenimax.com. For more information about Bethesda Softworks visit www.bethsoft.com.

After the ESA apparently sent out an E3 list that excluded Bethsoft, the Bethblog has word they will be there, along with Fallout 3:

Yes, Bethesda Softworks will be at this year’s E3 in LA.

Yes, we will have Fallout 3 there.

No, I don’t know why the ESA sent out a list that did not include us, just like they did last year. Maybe it’s because the had to go to print at a certain point and we hadn’t picked our space yet. No idea.

But we’ll be there and so will Fallout 3.

Character artist Jonah Lobe is next up for an Inside the Vault treatment at the Bethblog:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m a character artist and at the moment most of my work involves modeling and texturing Fallout’s bestiary. Basically, once a creature concept is fully realized by Adam, our insanely talented concept artist, I take the reins and do my best to translate his ideas into three dimensions. I’m essentially taking a sketch and using that to generate a fully realized digital sculpture, constructing the anatomy in a way most conducive to smooth and easy animation. From there I pass it on to an animator, who rigs and animates it.

Another QA tester is up for the Bethblog's Inside the Vault.  Here's Jennifer Nolan on the best and worst of testing:

What is the best part about working as a tester? The worst part?
You know, I’m not sure there is just one thing I like the best about working as a tester, but I guess one of the top things I like is that I find it really interesting to get the chance to see how games get put together, slowly building up and changing into the final product. I like to think about how the game looked when I first began testing it and comparing it to the end product. I get excited about things that are going to be in the games, and then getting the chance to see them for the first time.

The worst part? The commute! It’s awful — it takes me about forty minutes on a good day with little traffic to get to work. On every other day, it takes about an hour or more. But more specific to being a tester, I’d say that the repetitive nature of testing can get to me sometimes. You need to play the same game over and over again, for months on end. Needless to say, once the project is finished, I almost feel like I could play the games blindfolded.

QA tester Michael Lattanzia answers some questions for the Bethblog's latest Inside the Vault:

What is the best part about working as a tester? The worst part?

The worst part of being a tester is how repetitive it can get. Most people rarely spend more than 100 hours or so on a game, but as a tester we have to spend literally thousands of hours on the same game before it’s released. That quest that was really fun the first time through seems a lot less interesting when you’re playing it again for the 20th time.

The best part is everything else. I love getting to see the changes a game goes through over the course of the development. It’s also very entertaining seeing some of the crazy bugs that pop up along the way.

Inside the Vault at the Bethblog catches up with Producer Jeff Gardiner for their next dev profile:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m a Producer. AKA, the ‘cattle prod,’ the ‘snake-oil salesman,’ or ‘smiley-glad-hand.’ On Fallout 3, I’m in charge of keeping the designers busy. I also have a heavy background in design from previous projects, so I coordinate and help design various game systems; combat and VATS in particular, among other things. It’s a great job. Being able to shoot at things in a videogame all day, and then getting paid, isn’t something I take for granted.

What other games have you worked on?
As a Designer I worked (with Michael Kirkbride, who some of you know) on Defender. I then was promoted to Lead Design on Fantastic Four for the first movie. From there, I held the title of Design Director over various projects. Here at Bethesda, I helped produce Oblivion, and was Lead Producer on Shivering Isles, Knights of the Nine, and the rest of the DLC.

Tools programmer Shannon Bailey is next to get the Inside the Vault treatment at the Bethblog:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m a programmer in the systems group, which means that I mostly work on the ways things get into the game. Specifically, I do a lot of work on the editor and the art exporter, and I help maintain our build process.

What other games have you worked on?
The only game I’ve worked on besides Fallout was Midway’s Gravity Games Bike title (though I started in their tools department, writing plug-ins and doing r&d).

I spent some time afterwards studying and working in cognitive neuroscience, ultimately in a lab that studied the effects of playing video games on the brain. But unless you count pushing a button to indicate the familiarity of a stimulus as gaming, Fallout 3 is the only other title I’ve worked on, and the first RPG. 

It's so quiet you can almost see the tumbleweeds - obviously everyone is already concentrating on Easter.  So, to fill the gap a little, here's a really, really short interview with Bethsoft's Todd Howard on his memories of D&D, by way of a tribute to Gary Gygax at Level Up:

The glare of Inside the Vault's spotlight is turned on concept artist Adam Adamowicz at the Bethblog:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
Concept Artist, odd noises from the corner.

What other games have you worked on?
Actually published? Working backwards: Shivering Isles, Goblin Commander, NightCaster I & II. The first game I worked on was Hired Guns for Psygnosis, when they were still around. I, we, all literally worked 70 to 90 hour weeks trying to get it in a box. Two and a half years later, Psygnosis went belly up, and we all had our nervous breakdowns. In the meantime our efforts got us noticed and bought by other companies, so at least we were essentially staying afloat. Financially there was always bankruptcy hovering around the corner, like a clammy fart.

Ah, the good ol’ days.

Other ones that never made it, Lost Continents, Fugue, Cthulhu Now, Fistful of Zombies…they all had some great ideas I refuse to let die…

Bethsoft's latest Inside the Vault chats to character artist, Dane Olds:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m a character artist here at Bethesda. I mainly do modeling and texturing for the weapons in Fallout 3. I also do outfits for characters on occasion.

What other games have you worked on?
I started out in the game industry here at Bethesda. I got my break working as an environment art intern on Shivering Isles. Before I graduated college I worked as a project lead/character artist on a total conversion mod for Half-Life 2 called Forever Bound.

The Bethblog's Inside the Vault talks to programmer Mike Dulany.  Here's his detailed advice on getting a job in the industry:

How did you get into the industry? Do you have any tips for breaking in?
I used to old cliché “I know a guy who works there.” Though to meet “a guy” I was an active member of the IGDA ( International Game Developers Association ) and met him (and a number of other interesting people) by attending the local chapters meetings. He informed me they were hiring QA staff and I was more than happy to leave my job at the time to join the team.

Advice? I think my advice is best put forth in these easy to follow steps:

1) Be good/extremely motivated in a particular area of game development.
2) Know a guy. (Optional, but recommended)
3) ???
4) Job!

Associate Producer Tim Lamb steps into the spotlight at the Bethblog's Inside the Vault:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I am the Associate Producer for programming. I work with the coders to lay-out and keep the schedule up-to-date. I assign the majority of bugs and tasks that go to coders, modify the priorities, get them dated and scheduled, monitor the status, shift them when needed, rinse and repeat. I also perform a number of other miscellaneous tasks like firing off and tracking builds, updating kits for meetings, and pretty much whatever else I can do to keep the development process moving along.

Fallout 3 level designer Jeff Browne is next with the Inside the Vault treatment at the Bethblog:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I am a level designer and currently working on Fallout 3. My job consists of coming up with ideas for layouts based on quest designs, designer feedback, and what I think would be fun. Then I block them out in the editor and write up a quick level design document (LDD) for each layout. In the LDD, I explain the basic flow, mood, atmosphere, and gameplay I want to have in the level. Throughout the course of the project, the level continuously changes based on feedback from leads, level designers, QA, peer reviews, etc. In the end, I hope to have a level that is interesting, fun, and memorable.

Bethsoft's Into the Vault talks to QA Lead Kevin Kauffman:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I am the QA lead on Fallout 3 and I manage the daily activities of a few dozen testers. In addition to scheduling and, you know, actually playing the game to look for bugs, I help manage the bug database that we use to communicate issues to the dev team — on a game this big, that can be a full-time job by itself. I am also fortunate enough to work closely with the development team to determine what needs to be tested on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Early on in development, this will start as a long term test plan based off of the concepts the designers and programmers have agreed should make the final product. Later in development this will mean sitting in on implementation meetings or pistol whipping developers Jack Bauer-style to get them to talk — so that we know exactly how they want functionality “X” to work.

Inside the Vault at the Bethblog talks to character animator Gary Noonan about his background, work and the long path he took to working in the industry:

My story is FAR from what most developers would share. In the beginning, I guess around ‘91, I was a grease monkey. In short, I worked with cars in a body shop. Most of my formal training and certification was in the automotive industry. Painting, body work, restorations, customizations, you name it. I decided to take a break and I tried my hand in school at classic animation. Old school. We are talking Oxberry and acetates (you old folks will know what I am talking about). School was a drag. I didn’t feel challenged and it was actually quite boring. So, I dropped out.

I ended up in a graphics studio that was short lived since it was sold out, but I got some valuable knowledge from it. Then I did some freelance work for a while but it simply wasn’t how I wanted to make a living. So, I went back to the car gig. After about a year I tried my hand at computer graphics and computer science at school in MD. Drag drag drag drag drag…. after maintaining a 3.96 gpa and feeling like I had learned nothing after a few years, I threw in the towel. Another waste. Back to cars.

Programmer Erik Deitrick is next up for the Bethblog's Inside the Vault profile treatment:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m an interface programmer. So I work on menus and minigames.

What other games have you worked on?
I started off at Ubisoft working on Tarzan Untamed for the GameCube, which was a platformer geared to a young audience. I then worked at a failed dot-com making small games for a platform that never made it to market, which is a shame because my head-to-head wackamole would have revolutionized all mole-based games. Then I got hired here at Bethesda and worked on Oblivion, and now Fallout 3.

Lead Character Artist Christiane Meister is the first dev to be profiled for 2008 at the Bethblog:

What is the best part about working as an artist? The worst part?

My favorite part is designing how characters will look and work, down to the hairstyles, armor, and clothing. I generally liked to maintain a feel of culture — the objects that these people wore came from somewhere and were made by people of that particular place. I hope to carry that even further in the future. The worst part of the job is not quite succeeding at what you had envisioned, whether it is time, technology, or design constraints. But then art is never really finished — only abandoned.

Can I ask for better heads, please?

The Bethblog is pointing out an interview in a pdf webzine put out by a modding site called Oblivion Real Estate.  The conversation sees writer Erik Caponi and artist Megan Sawyer (no relation) discussing their positions and work and touches obliquely on Fallout 3.  Here's a sample:

PS: What are the basic steps you take when writing a quest? What kind of work flow tips could you give the novice modder?

Erik: First, I start with an idea and I write it down. No
matter what it is, no matter how bad or how much I hate
it, I write it down. And then I start from there. I change it,
rewrite it, blow it up, rebuild it, play it out in my head, and
construct the basic flow of the quest. It’s important not to
commit to too much on paper, because you want to leave
space for things to evolve in the editor.

After I feel that I have a good core structure and idea, I put it into the editor. The main path goes in first. I focus on that before letting myself get distracted with side branches and details. Once that’s in, I go through and add the big side branches. I get it to a working state and play it. Again, and again. And again and again. This is really the most important part. Every time I play through, I look for ways to make it better, implement them, and play it again. And really, you keep doing that. Get other people to play it and ask them how to make it better. Around here, we have the luxury of big meetings where we play the quest and sit around and talk about it (politely and never with a single raised voice, honest). We play each other’s quests and give notes on it.

You can download the 8-page .pdf here (direct link). 

Gavin "kathode" Carter is the next dev to come under the spotlight of the Bethblog's Inside the Vault profiles:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m the lead producer on Fallout 3. The easiest way to describe it is to think of it as more or less “Head of Communications” for Fallout as far as the development team goes. My job involves working with our department producers and leads to communicate task requirements, schedules, and ongoing status updates to the team, along with making sure everyone has everything they need to do their job efficiently.

...in Team Fortress 2.  As the year winds down, the Bethblog has a fun item with a detailed After Action Report of a recent TF2 multiplayer showdown between the two studios:

As mentioned before, many of our devs take Team Fortress II pretty seriously when playing against other studios. This past week was a big one, as the Vault 101 Dwellers took on the boys from Bioware. Check out our very own Nate Purkeypile’s summary of the victory. It’ll be remembered here at the office as “Mass Beatdown.”

Last night, two titanic forces met in a battle of epic proportions. A prophet foretold of the match ages ago and said that two studios would have a battle to decide once and for all, who was the best RPG studio…well, or who was better at a multiplayer shooter. The day… was a Thursday. The maps would be Dustbowl and 2fort.

Games Radar has an odd article that asks Bethesda's Matt Grandstaff if developers really listen to fans.  I say "odd" because without prejudicing Matt's replies, it seems unlikely any developer would answer with anything other than a polite "of course".  Anyway, here's a taste:

GR: Do developers really listen to gamers? Or should gamers stick to gaming and leave developing to developers?

Matt: The folks at our office definitely listen to what the fans have to say. On any given day, you'll even see devs actively participating in discussion within our own forums or commenting on our blog. Additionally, I spend a lot of my time informing guys of any feedback, good and bad, that I feel the developers should be aware of.

Inside the Vault at the Bethblog now talks to AI programmer, Ahn Hopgood:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I am a Senior Programmer in the area of Artificial Intelligence.

What other games have you worked on?
My first game was Morrowind on which I did interface and gameplay. I then did some minor AI, interface and gameplay work on Tribunal and Bloodmoon. On Oblivion I did most of the AI and I did some work on Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles.

Bethsoft's Into The Vault talks to Senior Designer Kurt Kuhlmann in this latest entry:

What is the best part about working as a designer? The worst part?
Best part is certainly the chance to get paid to do something as fun as designing games. I’m still very aware of how lucky I am to be doing something I love. Maybe that isn’t exactly answering the question. I think it’s the collaborative process that I like best — designers work closely with programmers, artists, level designers — everybody on the development team. The process of taking an idea, which starts out as just a thought in your head, and working with other creative people to turn it into something real, is pretty amazing.

The worst part… there really isn’t anything I dislike about being a designer. Maybe losing an argument to Todd. But luckily, I hardly ever lose…

Bethesda's Inside the Vault talks to programmer Orin Tresnjak:

What is the best part about bring a programmer? The worst part?

The ABSOLUTE best part for me as a graphics guy is when I get some effect or other complex system I’ve been working on finally showing up on screen. Then I can commence the real fun–tweaking and perfecting it. It can also be very rewarding tracking down obscure, difficult bugs. Maddening, but rewarding. You feel like a million bucks once you’ve figured it out.

On the other hand, the worst part is when I spend ten hours tracking down some hard-to-find bug, only to discover that it’s traceable to some minor typo I made a year ago.

Bethsoft's Ashley Cheng has written a piece on the Bethblog about breaking into game development and becoming a designer:

Of course, being a kickass modder doesn’t guarantee you anything. But it gives you a leg up on all the other designer posers out there who say they want to be designers, but can’t be bothered to actually design anything.

By the way, be careful about expressing how many great designs you have for games. Development studios don’t care about your ideas. We have lots of ideas. Trust us. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Implementation is everything. We want to know that you will work your butt off, that you have a thick skin and take criticism, that you are committed to learning and adapting, that you can absorb knowledge and teach yourself.

Community Manager Matt Grandstaff is next to step up and be profiled for the Bethblog:

I’m the Community Manager here at Bethesda, so I spend a lot of time in the forums and then sharing information with the developers. No I can’t go downstairs and make the changes myself, but I can pass on what people are talking about. I also co-manage the Bethesda Blog. Gotta say, I have tons of respect for the bloggers of the world. It’s not easy trying to come up with new content all the time, especially since we’re trying to stay focused on Bethesda news. Maybe I should start posting about Britney Spears or iPods…that would help my dilemma. As a part of the marketing department, there’s plenty of other stuff I work on, but I don’t think you’d find it particularly interesting.

In the future, like maybe when Fallout is closer to shipping, I look forward to doing new stuff with the community: community events, podcasts, who knows?

You'll probably recall that Bethsoft's parent company - Zenimax - recently launched an online division replete with $300M of venture capital.  Now look what VoodooExtreme has dug up:

While doing a little domain crawling, we noticed that ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, recenly purchased ELDERSCROLLSONLINE.COM. Combine this little acquisition with the fact that it recently opened up a online game division headed up by Mythic co-founder Matt Firor, and I think we might have made a love connection. We contacted Bethesda about this, but have yet to get an official response.

You'll probably recall that Bethsoft's parent company - Zenimax - recently launched an online division replete with $300M of venture capital.  Now look what VoodooExtreme has dug up:

While doing a little domain crawling, we noticed that ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, recenly purchased ELDERSCROLLSONLINE.COM. Combine this little acquisition with the fact that it recently opened up a online game division headed up by Mythic co-founder Matt Firor, and I think we might have made a love connection. We contacted Bethesda about this, but have yet to get an official response.

Inside the Vault at the Bethblog talks to artist Robert Wisnewski:

After a week hiatus, Inside the Vault is back. Today, our Q&A features Robert Wisnewski, one of our senior artists. His main focus is on our dungeons - he created the beautiful fort ruins in Oblivion.

Bethsoft's latest Inside The Vault turns to producer Craig Lafferty:

Today’s Inside the Vault is with Craig Lafferty, one of our senior producers. Craig is the producer responsible for all our artists. We use a matrix structure on the team - so in Craig’s case, he serves as both the producer for the art staff (he has two associate producers to help him manage our huge art dept), and as a lead producer for projects (Shivering Isles, Oblivion PS3). In fact, our PS3 fans out there will be happy to know Craig is also helping out with getting Shivering Isles working on the PS3 (Hopefully, Pete will be able to have more to say soon, but please know that we are working on it best we can.)

Clara Struthers, an artist, is the next Inside the Vault dev profile at the Bethblog:

What art are you most proud from Oblivion?

The city of Anvil, complete with its docks, boats, lighthouse and castle, are definitely one of my favorite things I worked on in Oblivion. In Shivering Isles, I’m proud of Crucible.

This latest Inside the Vault dev profile at the Bethblog talks to sound engineer Mark Lampert:

I’m the sound engineer, and I handle all aspects of the sound design for Bethesda Game Studios. In addition I do the voice casting, recording and editing, plus any post processing such as voice effects, and I share in directing, typically with the lead designer of a project. There’s also a little bit of music work in terms of mastering our chosen composer’s tracks for the game, and sometimes I end up writing little bits and pieces of things here and there as needed.

We've mentioned it before but the Bethblog has a reminder that their job fair is tomorrow, so check out the details if you are interested in working for Bethsoft.

Bethsoft's latest Inside the Vault dev profile is artist and former intern, Daniel Lee:

What’s your job at Bethesda?

I’m an Environment Artist. Since I’ve been here I’ve made models varying from teal mushroom trees to utility poles and electricity pylons. Or as Mr. Todd Howard once said “things that reach into the sky”. In addition to that I will also handle some of the fonts used throughout our games.

Senior Programmer and Systems Group Lead Mike Lipari is the latest Bethsoft developer to answer questions for the Inside the Vault  series:

What is the best part about being a programmer? The worst part?

The best part is seeing something wrong in the game or something that could be better and being able to go in and fix it. The worst part is the fact that this is often done much much later at night than I would like it to be.

A new Inside the Vault feature is up at the Bethblog, profiling Director of Design and former TSR designer, Bruce Nesmith:

What pen and paper RPGs did you work on?

I’ve lost count of the games I made while at TSR. I did work with Marvel Superheroes, D&D, AD&D (1st and 2nd edition), Gamma World, and Buck Rogers. I’m probably best known as the author of the original Ravenloft boxed set. For quite a while I was the lead for that product line. I also did work with Dark Sun, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and Mystara. I was the designer of the Dragonstrike board game, and worked heavily on the Spellfire collectible card game.

In related news, GamePro has a perfunctory mini-preview of Fallout 3 (thanks NMA):

Visually, the game already looks phenomenal, and is far, far more detailed than the already stunning Oblivion. Bethesda is promising virtually identical graphics and performance between the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions as well as simultaneous launch dates. Fall 2008 is a long ways off...but we have a hunch that Fallout 3 is one game worth waiting for.

Fallout 3 Lead Character Artist Josh Jones is the latest Inside the Vault dev profile at the Bethblog.  Here is a taste:

What is the best part about being an artist? The worst part?

The best part? I get paid to be creative. The worst part? It’s hard to appreciate your work when you’re painfully aware of its flaws and inadequacies that 99% of people will never notice. We artists are always striving for perfection, but the reality of schedules means that we never get to put as much love and attention to detail as we would like.

The blog is also pointing out an upcoming Zenimax job fair:

Apparently we’re having a job fair next month, or ZeniMax is anyway. At least, that’s what the email I just got says. I thought I’d pass it along for interested parties.

It’s going to be held from 11am - 8pm on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at the Baltimore Marriott in Hunt Valley. Given the location, the focus is obviously on people interested in joining ZeniMax Online Studios up in Hunt Valley, MD, but they’ll also be accepting applications and reviewing qualified applicants for positions here at Bethesda Softworks/Bethesda Game Studios.

ZOS is currently hiring in the areas of arts, programming, design, content, production, and so on. You can see the full list of positions here. Bethesda is currently hiring for a couple of positions including several programming positions, a character artist, an animator…and you can see that full list of positions here.

Be sure to bring a copy, or copies, of your resume/portfolio/etc. Wear a clean shirt. Good luck!

The next Inside the Vault dev profile at the Bethblog talks to artist Megan Sawyer:

What’s your job at Bethesda?

I’m an environment artist. I work on everything from houses tolandscape textures. In Oblivion, I made the houses of Cheydinhal, sculpted the landscape around the whole city, created the bridges and cattails, and made the Dark Brotherhood entry door. I also created the landscape textures and overall feel of the Blackwood swamp region. Currently on Fallout I’ve worked on a few buildings, an area for the main quest, a lot of clutter, and am now working on landscape.

At night I fight crime!

The latest Inside the Vault dev profile at the Bethblog is programmer Brendan Anthony:

Today’s Inside the Vault is with programmer, Brendan Anthony. He’s not responsible for any specific area or systems, per se - its more like we give him a list of cool stuff we want in the game and he makes it happen.

What’s your job at Bethesda?

The standard job description is “I make things blow up.” I’m a programmer and I work with physics, magic, special effects, and lots of general gameplay code. I’m very lucky in that I’ve been able to implement some pretty sweet features over the years — some days, if you were to hang around outside my cube, you would just hear bursts of laughter erupting over and over as I “test” explosions or crazy physics effects.

The latest developer profile interview at the Bethsoft Blog is for Grant Struthers, an artist currently on Fallout 3:

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m a member of the art team and I’m currently responsible for the various special effects in the game. My job covers things like animating explosions, dust, water, fire and the like.

What prior projects have you worked on?

I started my career in game development right here at Bethesda. That was about three and a half years ago, right in the middle of Oblivion’s development. I was primarily a world artist then, working on cities and such. I was given a chance to design a couple of the special effects towards the end of the project and folks seemed to like them. I got the job permanently when I figured out a way to turn a room into butterflies for Shivering Isles. I also contributed a few effects to Knights of the Nine.

Episode 75 of the Official Xbox Magazine Podcast features a conversation with Todd Howard:

Our old friend Todd Howard stops by to chat up his latest RPG project, Fallout 3. It won rave reviews at E3 (and in a detailed four-page preview in our current issue), and we take the opportunity to ask him about differences between Fallout and Oblivion, the highs and lows of downloadable content, and why the upcoming Oblivion Game of the Year edition doesn’t include everything.

The Bethsoft blog is home to two new interviews from the last couple of days.  First, there is a profile interview with QA Lead Christopher Krietz:

As the Oblivion Game of the Year test lead, what is it like testing a game that you’ve already played for hundreds of hours already?
I won’t lie and say each moment is as good as the first few with it, but I can still sit down and enjoy playing. I’ll still find things I hadn’t seen before (I only found out about the giant mudcrab fairly recently, for example), or get into situations that are new and exciting even now. There’s a bit of tedium with it, sometimes… but in the end there is a comforting feeling, being in Cyrodiil, it’s almost like being home.

...and an interview with Matt Firor on Zenimax' MMO division:

What projects/games are you going to be working on?

We’re way too early in the process to be talking about any concrete plans we have, except to point out the obvious that we develop MMOs.

An Oblivion modding community called Silver Rose Studios spoke to Bethsoft level designer Joel Burgess in this interview.  The topics mostly cover Oblivion modding and Joel's work:

If I were to wander around the oblivion gameworld, what would I see of your work? (specific areas) (abe)
I came onto Oblivion fairly late in the production cycle, but managed to get my fingers into a number of dungeons before we shipped. Some of my favorites are: Vilverin, Lost Boys Cavern, Rockmilk Cave, Ceyatatar, Underpall Cave, and from Shivering Isles: Ebrocca, Xeddefen, and Milchar.

Designer Alan Nanes is next up for the Bethsoft Blog's dev profile feature, Into the Vault:

What do you like best about working as a designer? What is the worse part?

The best part about being a designer is that your ideas drive the game world. Even though we do have a Lead Designer (Emil in the case of Fallout 3) to guide us, they are always very open to fresh ideas. I’ve seen quests change 100% from their original design based on a great idea someone suddenly had in a meeting. Being able to have your ideas translate to something you can play in the game is the greatest feeling for a designer.

The worst part about being a designer is the opposite. Sometimes an idea you’ve come up with can feel great, but when it’s examined by your peers or by the Lead, they make you realize it doesn’t belong in the game or it’s too complex. When writing dialog and quest materials, it’s surprisingly easy to forget you’re writing for a game, not for a book. You need to be clear and concise, yet detailed enough so that the flavor of the game world isn’t compromised. Maintaining this balance is the most challenging aspect of my job.

A profile interview with former modder - now programmer - Brian Robb can be found at the Bethsoft blog:

1. What’s your job at Bethesda?

I’m a programmer. I’m responsible for a number of different systems in the game, but for Fallout 3 my biggest task is the Combat AI. I spend a lot of time running the game in slow motion from a floating camera, watching what the NPCs are doing and trying to make them intelligent and more natural.

2. What prior projects have you worked on?

I got my start right here, working on Oblivion. The majority of my time was spent writing the Save/Load system, but I worked on a number of other elements of the game as well. Prior to Oblivion, I was a member of the Morrowind mod community and created the Morrowind Enhanced series of mods.

Bethsoft's blog has a profile interview with Fallout 3 associate producer Narthan McDyer, covering his background and work:

How long have you been playing Fallout, and how would you describe your feelings towards the franchise?

Unfortunately I got in to Fallout late. I was unemployed and in high school with Fallout 1 and when 2 came out Starcraft had consumed my free time. So my first foray into Fallout wasn’t until about 3 years ago, I picked up the first one had a blast with it. Who knew that MacGuyver could be such an evil ****?

Ashley Cheng has written for the Bethsoft blog about their Fallout 3 press day - they're "own E3".  It's a general piece where Ashley says he won't be attending the real E3 (Todd and Emil have those duties) but they had lots of fun with their recent press presentation - this bit caught my eye:

I met a few journalists who admitted that the original Fallout games were a bit before their times, and that they were going in cold turkey. Based on the questions from the Q&A, it sounded like they were digging it.

Bethsoft has launched a new blog (thanks to Briosafreak's Fallout 3 blog), to be used as an un unofficial community sort of thing - here's Pete Hines' explanation:

We already have an outlet for official info on our games, but have been pretty limited on providing info on cool mods that are out, put up a gallery of fan art, do short Q&As with devs from different games, answer questions we get from people in a place where everyone else can see it too, or, I dunno, show off a Fallout 3 paint job someone here did in Forza 2…that kind of thing. Official sites aren’t always a good way to do that sort of thing, and things tend to get lost in our forums fairly quickly. Since gaming is what we do for work and play, hopefully this blog will cover plenty of both.

Anyway, the first real content is a profile interview with Emil Pagliarulo:

1) What’s your job at Bethesda?

I’m the lead designer of Fallout 3.

2) What prior projects have you worked on?

Let’s see. Here at Bethesda, my very first task was creating all the miscellaneous quests for Bloodmoon, the second official Morrowind expansion. I then did a lot of design work on Oblivion, including the Arena and Dark Brotherhood. Before working at Bethesda, I was a designer on the Thief series, and worked at Looking Glass and Ion Storm Austin.

In other news, you can catch Game Informer's Matt Miller in a podcast with radio station KFAN discussing the time he spent with Fallout 3.

This newsbit originally had Matt Miller writing for the Bethsoft blog - which is of course a silly idea -  it's actually Bethsoft's Matt Grandstaff; apologies for any confusion from my brain explosion.

Some of you may know that Interplay licensed Glutton Creeper Games to make a tabletop PnP Fallout game some time ago, which was due for release this June.  RPG Codex has noticed GCG has been issued with a cease and desist by Bethsoft.  While we obviously don't know the legal position of each entity, it's interesting that Bethsoft would choose to exercise their IP ownership over this.  Here's the announcement:

May 8th, 2007: ZeniMax Media/Bethesda has threatened to file an injunction against GCG for damages, should we not cease and deist production of Fallout PnP d20 products.  They are stating that Interplay never had the rights to license a Pen and Paper to GCG under their license of Fallout from 2004 before the purchase of the IP, and makes claims against GCG that it may damage the Fallout brand and forecoming Fallout 3 release by linking the two.  So for now, we have removed the page, until a resolution is met.  If you want to see Fallout PnP d20 releases, please let the people at ZeniMax Media/Bethesda know, but don't send them hate mail or flames.

Our first product was being sent for review this weekend to Interplay, and still will be, as we hope Interplay will get this sorted out with Bethesda.

I noticed at Briosafreak's Fallout 3 blog that despite not being listed as an exhibitor for this year's reduced E3, Bethsoft will indeed be attending according to Pete Hines.  With Shivering Isles released, it seems likely Fallout 3 will be the focus.  Time will tell.

Bethsoft's original deal with Interplay for Fallout was a limited license, with Interplay maintaining ownership of the IP.  Word via Briosafreak's Fallout 3 Blog today is that Interplay sold the entire Fallout IP to Bethsoft on April 4th for $5.7m:

Under the APA, the Company sold all of its rights to the IP to Bethesda for a total amount of $5,750,000.00 payable to the Company, subject to various conditions, in three cash installments.[...]

In a complete reversal, Interplay now has a license from Bethsoft to develop a Fallout MMORPG.  Hit the link for the full post and a link to the original SEC filing.

Titled Scrolling Up, GamesIndustry.biz chats with Pete Hines about the success of Oblivion and some related topics:

You took some criticism for the first downloadable content for Oblivion - particularly the horse armour pack, which some felt was overpriced. Do you think it was unfair? Was it a result of working with a system that was still being established?

Yes and no. We didn't have any choice. We were the first ones to do downloadable content like that - some people had done similar things, but no one had really done additions where you add new stuff to your existing game. So we knew we were going to take some flak whatever. We could have put that out for 25 cents and people would have still been up in arms.

But we had some other things we were working on and were able to come out with new things that were better conceived and at a better price point, things like the wizard's tower. We found that the price isn't really the issue. People just want to feel like they're getting a good deal. I'll pay $3 for downloadable content, but it better be cool - and horse armour just isn't cool. So if we had to do it over again, I'd say either we should wait until later for the horse armour or do it for less.

The flipside is, that thing sold hundreds of thousands of copies and still sells every day. It's not like people don't want it, because it still sells. I think on the whole people think what we've done is of interest and good value.

It's obviously unofficial Bethsoft day...Edge Online has a Pete Hines community Q&A with reader-submitted questions:

Gamasutra has a short regular feature called Media Consumption that profiles a developer's media habits, providing a little personal insight.  This time, it's Todd Howard's turn.  The article starts with some broad stuff about Fallout 3 (the game has “been full steam for a while now, and preproduction is coming to an end and we hope to show it off soon”) and then quizzes Todd about what he reads, watches and plays.  Let's take the game bit:

Games: "The Ultima series is still my favorite, and probably is still my biggest inspiration as far as presenting a fully realized world in a game. Ultima 4 to 7 are so ahead of their time it's just unbelievable. In regards to storytelling and visual storytelling [I take] a lot [of influence from other mediums].

SPOnG has an interview with Pete Hines, ostensibly about the release of the PS3 version of Oblivion but wandering onto Fallout 3 and some general areas.  Since the PS3 stuff is pedestrian and there's nothing revealing about Fallout 3, here's a bit that might relate to some recent debates we've seen:

SPOnG: With that in mind, on the one hand there are numerous pretty good websites and blogs out there… and plenty of good, so-called citizen journalists and whatnot, but then on the other side you have loads of far less reputable sites, dressed up as 'professional' journalism…

Pete Hines: Absolutely. It is a problem that we see a lot. Folks passing themselves off as journalists, who don't act as journalists. They'll run and print anything they hear from anybody as news purely in an effort to try and scoop the other guy because, as you said, there are now all these 'citizen reporters' and so they're always trying to get the drop on the other guy… putting out some piece of information first.

And it doesn't seem to matter in many cases whether they've taken the words out of context, or twisted somebody's meaning or just completely missed the point altogether. So, y'know, it is an issue and - going back to my previous point - you have to take pretty much everything you read on the internet with regards to what's actual and what's the reality with regards to this game, or this platform or whatever with a pinch of salt because of that.

Bethosft is looking for a Community Manager and a Quality Assurance Manager - hit the links for details.

Pete Hines has been interviewed at Shacknews following an Oblivion PS3 preview event, with the conversation ranging from that version through Bethsoft's approach to Fallout 3 over five pages:

Shack: You guys have your own trademark series so you're used to dealing with fan expectation, but is it different or intimidating working on a franchise like Fallout that already has such a built in reputation?

Pete Hines: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. For a couple of reasons. Number one is that we're treating it as if we made the first two, with the same care and attention we give to The Elder Scrolls, but the truth of the matter is that we haven't. As a result there's probably a lot more divergent opinion about what it should be, what we should do, are we the right guys to do it, and so on.

Shack: Is there any of that internally?

Pete Hines: Internally, not really. Internally, we're a bunch of Fallout geeks. There is nobody [here] who hasn't played that game and enjoyed it. I have that game on my laptop, I take it with me and play it. But it's definitely different, because it's not really considered ours, the franchise. We didn't start it. There is a little bit of that sentiment out there that we have to prove that we're worthy to be the guys to make Fallout 3. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, because we have very high expectations for ourselves. The standard that we hold ourselves to, the kind of games we expect to make in terms of quality, we have a very high level of expectation. There's really nothing like the people from the outside expecting more than we expect ourselves.

It's a lot like when we were doing Morrowind. Everybody said, "Well, the last game you did was Daggerfall, and it was really buggy, and everything you're telling me about Morrowind sounds good but you need to prove it." It kind of has that same feel, that people are saying, "Yeah, I liked Oblivion, and you guys are good at roleplaying, but you have to prove that you aren't going to screw up this beloved franchise." We think we can do it. We are the right guys to be doing this franchise, we do take it seriously, and we do want to make it a powerful force in roleplaying in terms of what these games can do and be. We hope that when we show people what we're up to, they'll agree. Some folks will, and some folks will say it's not what they wanted. At the end of the day, we respect that, but we have to do what we think is right. Again, you can't make the game that everybody wants because you'll get ten different answers about what that game is.

Bethsoft's Pete Hines has spoken to Gamasutra in what amounts to a quick company update.  They briefly touch on each of their titles (with Gamasutra erroneously referring to Fallout Online in the chapter heading instead of Fallout 3) but nothing new is revealed:

Finally, when asked about Bethesda's highly anticipated resurrection of the classic Fallout post-apocalyptic role-playing franchise, Hines was obviously coy: “We are a fairly good ways into the process. The team has ramped up, and it will be a little while longer. As is the case with all of our games, especially those of this scope, we don't really want to talk about them until they are in a state where we can show you, rather than having you simply picturing it in your minds eye.”

He added, simply: “Fallout is not a quick two year process, and we are already several years into the project.”

Oh hi! Forgot to mention that I'm in Las Vegas until tomorrow afternoon, at a Bethesda Softworks event. Yes, yes -- they actually invited me back to see their games after the whole Oblivion dustup. Their fans must be shocked right now, reading this.

At any rate, we're getting info on a game that'll be announced on November 1. So please look forward to that date, upon which you will be informed of everything. You'll find out, for example, how I got a thick layer of desert sand all over my white Old Navy shirt. Suspense!