How Bethesda Evolved Over The Years & Keeps AAA Games Interesting
Bethesda Game Studios is considered a must-have staple in the video game industry, and has been cranking out killer games since the 80s. Bethesda has an impressive track record when it comes to competing with much larger game companies, and still produces amazing games that have a record of selling millions of copies each year. Although many players will think about Skyrim, Oblivion, and Fallout as being the biggest contributors to Bethesda's success, the game studio has published a number of other popular games that will be remembered for years to come. But what makes Bethesda's AAA titles so interesting?
Bethesda Softworks, LLC established itself as a video game publisher in June 1986, in Bethesda, Maryland, but moved to Rockville, MD in 1990. Bethesda spent its first fifteen years of self-publishing and developing its own titles, such as The Elder Scrolls and Gridiron!, which has been credited as the first sports simulation game that was physics-based. Bethesda later acquired one of its biggest titles of all time from Interplay Entertainment, the Fallout franchise.
Before the release of Fallout 3 in 2008 under the new studio of Bethesda, players were skeptical if the company could make another Fallout game that was just as good as the first two under Interplay. However, Fallout 3 was a success, and fans obviously expected more Fallout after that. Later on came Fallout: New Vegas just two years later with Obsidian Entertainment, and, like its predecessor, sold an enormous amount of copies, over 12 million worldwide. Fans had to wait a little while for the next game in the Fallout series, but after the extreme hype built around the game, fans were not disappointed when Fallout 4 finally launched in 2015, and the game garnered mostly positive reviews across the board. The release of Fallout 4 also came with Bethesda publishing its first free to play mobile game, Fallout Shelter, which was met with positive reviews as well.
Bethesda was best-known for making Fallout and The Elder Scrolls at this point, and wanted to branch out. The company decided to acquired the DOOM franchise, and announced a reboot for 2016, one which was scored highly among players and reviewers alike. Bethesda began branching out to more game studios, and partnered with a Japanese studio called Tango Gameworks to produce a game in a new genre that Bethesda hasn't really played with before, horror. The pair produced The Evil Within in 2014, and The Evil Within 2 in 2017, and both were met with praise. The company has continued to publish other successful games with both returning and new IPs, such as Prey, Wolfenstein, Rage, and upcoming titles such as Starfield, The Elder Scrolls VI, and DeathLoop. While most Bethesda-developed games are as well-known for their glitches and bugs as they are for their fantastic stories, titles like DOOM & Wolfenstein, which they only published, were much smoother.
So how does Bethesda continue to weave extraordinary games together? The company was smart when it acquired legendary franchises like Fallout and DOOM quite early, allowing them to create unique, new games from already existing franchises. Bethesda is also known for pairing up and working with other companies that will bring in ideas and a creative mindset that may be lacking in Bethesda's own studio, creating a working environment that enables developers to go beyond their own employees for help. The company has established itself as a self-built staple, but like other studios, has also seen its share of failures. With the recent disaster of Fallout 76, Bethesda has not only acknowledged that they didn't make all the right decisions, but has also continued to work to fix the game. While sometimes their fixes cause even more bugs, it has nevertheless helped solidify their place in history for making AAA games interesting, if nothing else.
The once-small studio from Maryland has been churning out games since the 1980's and has proved to players that their company is here to stay. Bethesda continues to make games interesting by creating massive, enveloping worlds, with deep and refreshing stories that pulls emotion from players while playing. Currently, fans and players can look forward to future hits such as the sci-fi RPG Starfield and DeathLoop from Bethesda.