Bethesda Game Studios is an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

and a studio of

ZeniMax Media ZeniMax Media Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Rockville, Maryland, and founded in 1999. The company owns publisher Bethesda Softworks with its development unit Bethesda Game Studios (developer of '' The Elder Scroll ...

based in

Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city that serves as the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, and is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fifth-largest community ...

. The company was established in 2001 as the spin-off of Bethesda Softworks' development unit, with Bethesda Softworks itself retaining a publishing function. The studio is led by

Todd Howard Todd Andrew Howard (born 1970) is an American video game designer, director, and producer. He serves as director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the development of the '' Fallout'' and ''The Elder Scrolls'' ...

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights ...

, Ashley Cheng as managing director, and Angela Browder as

studio director Studio manager, studio director, or studio head is a job title in various media-related professions, including design, advertising, and broadcasting. Design and advertising A design or advertising studio manager's responsibilities will typically ...

. Bethesda Game Studios operates three satellite studios, one in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

and two in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by b ...

, and employs 420 people as of March 2021.

History

In 2001,

, the parent company of

Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a division of Media Technology Limited, and in 1999 became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. In its ...

, decided that the two operational units at Bethesda Softworks, development and publishing, should be split apart. Subsequently, Bethesda Softworks retained the publishing, while development staff was moved to the newly established Bethesda Game Studios. Initially, BGS had around 40 people. By 2008, Bethesda Game Studios was considered one of the industry’s top developers on the reputation of the ''

Elder Scrolls ''The Elder Scrolls'' is a series of action role-playing video games primarily developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The series focuses on free-form gameplay in an open world. '' Morrowind'', '' Oblivion'' a ...

'' fantasy universe and the critically acclaimed ''

Fallout 3 ''Fallout 3'' is a 2008 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The third major installment in the ''Fallout'' series, it is the first game to be developed by Bethesda after acquiring ...

''. Bethesda had created a unique role for itself, “spending years to create massive, open-world, single-player RPGs — hardly a booming genre in the industry at large — to great success, bringing a once-niche PC genre to a broad multiplatform audience,” wrote Gamasutra in their year-end best of list. On December 9, 2015, ZeniMax Media announced the formation of Bethesda Game Studios Montreal, a new Bethesda Game Studios location in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

. Led by Yves Lachance, the former head of

Behaviour Interactive Behaviour Interactive Inc. is a Canadian video game development studio specializing in the production of 2D and 3D action/adventure games for home video game consoles, handheld game consoles, PCs and mobile. Based in Montreal, Canada, the comp ...

, the studio was set to broaden the portfolio of games across all gaming platforms. On March 9, 2018, Austin, Texas-based

BattleCry Studios Bethesda Game Studios Austin LLC (formerly BattleCry Studios LLC) is an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. History BattleCry Studios was founded on October 3, 2012, as subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, headed by Rich Vogel as ...

, another ZeniMax Media subsidiary, was rebranded as Bethesda Game Studios Austin. On August 10, 2018,

Escalation Studios Bethesda Game Studios Dallas LLC (formerly Escalation Studios, LLC) is an American video game developer based in Dallas, founded in 2007 by Tom Mustaine, Marc Tardif, and Shawn Green. The company was briefly owned by 6waves Lolapps in 2012 and ...

was rebranded as

Bethesda Game Studios Dallas Bethesda Game Studios Dallas LLC (formerly Escalation Studios, LLC) is an American video game developer based in Dallas, founded in 2007 by Tom Mustaine, Marc Tardif, and Shawn Green. The company was briefly owned by 6waves Lolapps in 2012 and ...

. ZeniMax Media was acquired by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washingt ...

for in March 2021 and became part of

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...

Subsidiaries

* Bethesda Game Studios Montreal in

, Quebec; founded in December 2015. * Bethesda Game Studios Austin in Austin, Texas; founded as BattleCry Studios, a subsidiary of ZeniMax, in October 2012, and re-arranged as part of BGS in March 2018. *

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

; founded as Escalation Studios in 2007, acquired by ZeniMax in February 2017, and re-arranged as part of Bethesda Game Studios in August 2018.

Games developed

Bethesda Game Studios has principally been involved in the development of

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

s with their ''

The Elder Scrolls ''The Elder Scrolls'' is a series of action role-playing video games primarily developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The series focuses on free-form gameplay in an open world. '' Morrowind'', '' Oblivion'' a ...

'' and ''

Fallout Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioa ...

'' series for consoles and

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or techn ...

s, most of which have been commercially and critically successful. In 2015, the studio entered into the

mobile gaming A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA t ...

market with ''

Fallout Shelter A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designated to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War. Durin ...

'' based on the same franchise, which gained 50 million players by mid-2016. In February 2017, Howard said that they are in development of another mobile title following onto the success of ''Fallout Shelter''. This was revealed in 2018 to be '' The Elder Scrolls: Blades''. In 2016, Howard confirmed that while they are developing ''

The Elder Scrolls VI ''The Elder Scrolls'' is a series of Action role-playing game, action role-playing video games primarily developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The series focuses on Nonlinear gameplay, free-form gameplay in an ...

'', it was still a long way to the game's release. Meanwhile, two other significant projects are in development which are expected to be released prior to ''The Elder Scrolls VI''. On May 30, 2018, ''

Fallout 76 ''Fallout 76'' is a 2018 online action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is an installment in the ''Fallout'' series and a prequel to previous entries. ''Fallout 76'' is Bethesda ...

'' was announced. On June 10, 2018, during Bethesda's

E3 2018 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 (E3 2018) was the 24th E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily retailers a ...

conference, the other project in development was revealed to be the company's first new intellectual property in 25 years, '' Starfield''. During the 2021 Xbox/Bethesda Games Showcase, ''Starfield'' was announced to be releasing exclusively for PC and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020, ...

. It has a planned release for the first half of 2023. On June 14, 2022, Howard confirmed that ''Fallout 5'' would start development after the completion of ''The Elder Scrolls VI,'' with the latter currently in the pre-production phase of development.

Expansion packs

Awards

* Gamasutra's Best Of 2008 — Top Five Developer * 2011

Spike Video Game Awards The Spike Video Game Awards (in short VGAs, known as the VGX for the final show) was an annual award show hosted by American television network Spike from 2003 to 2013 that recognized the best computer and video games of the year. Produced by ' ...

— Studio of the Year * 2015

The Game Awards The Game Awards is an annual awards ceremony honoring achievements in the video game industry. Established in 2014, the shows are produced and hosted by game journalist Geoff Keighley, who worked on its predecessor, the Spike Video Game Awards, ...

— Developer of the Year (nominated)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2001 establishments in Maryland American companies established in 2001 American corporate subsidiaries Companies based in Rockville, Maryland Spike Video Game Award winners Video game companies established in 2001 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies ZeniMax Media