Of the big developers in the Western gaming market, few hold the same grand position as Bethesda Softworks. Since the 90s, the company has given players many hit titles that still attract fans. From Skyrim to Hi-Fi Rush to Fallout, Bethesda earned its status. Of course, many wish to know the lore of these lore-writing developers.
The company didn’t build its status overnight. With a forty-year history behind it, Bethesda Softworks has a long, impressive history. Even beyond their big two franchises, they gave gamers many other classics. Here is a breakdown of that history.
Bethesda’s Early Days
While Bethesda is mainly associated with vast open-world RPGs nowadays, they had much humbler beginnings. During the eighties, tech veteran Christopher Weaver decided to expand his career into the budding home computer gaming market. Years before even Madden or Fifa, he and engineer Ed Fletcher released the revolutionary football simulator Gridiron! for the Atari ST and Amiga. The game was a modest success and propelled their careers forward.
Soon after, they named the company after Weaver’s hometown and set up shop. The company made its early name by adapting James Cameron’s Terminator franchise to the gaming world. By the mid-nineties, Bethesda released Elder Scrolls: Arena and earned its place on the PC gaming map. Fun fact: the team even developed the NES game for Home Alone.
Elder Scrolls and Fallout
Of course, when most gamers hear the name “Bethesda,” their minds immediately jump to their two flagship franchises, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. In many, the two are “sibling” franchises, given their similar formulas and moddable engines, as open-world games that give unique takes on the fantasy and sci-fi genres. Until 2023’s Starfield, these two were the only franchises developed in-house.
Fallout is a post-apocalyptic game based on Cold War Era America. While exploring the irradiated wasteland of the games, the factions routinely satirize America’s militarized, consumerist ideas during the era along with the “Red Scare.” This is aided by its unique “Atompunk” aesthetic that captures this culture being frozen in time. The franchise was so popular this year that it earned an Amazon Prime TV series.
The Elder Scrolls is a fairly traditional fantasy RPG franchise. Set in the land of Tamriel, it features a hero who ventures across a fantasy world built upon many layers of mythic history. In between, heroes must join forces with continent-spanning factions and even outmaneuver the dozens of cosmic entities meddling in Tamriel’s affairs. The latest mainline entry, Skyrim, became one of the most acclaimed fantasy RPGs ever.
New Franchises
While the big two may be the most prominent Bethesda franchises, Bethesda worked alongside other teams to build up its already impressive library. Under the umbrella of ZeniMax Media, Bethesda helped publish many other titles. One of the biggest examples is id Software, the creator of the DOOM franchise and PC gaming icon. Their next biggest ally is Arkane, the creators of Prey, Dishonored, Redfall, and several Wolfenstein games.
They have even collaborated with several overseas developers in Japan. The most prominent examples are Tango Gameworks, the creators of The Evil Within games, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and the cel-shaded musical hit Hi-Fi Rush. Bethesda established itself as a gaming titan in all markets and genres through all of these.
Their Uncertain Future
During the 2010s and the following decade, Bethesda’s next attempts at huge open-world RPGs would not be met with the same acclaim. For example, last year’s Starfield was met with many skeptics, and 2018’s Fallout 76 was ridiculed for its unfinished nature and numerous glitches. In 2021, tech giant Microsoft purchased Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax. Given the massive acquisitions from the gaming world, many saw this as a step in the wrong direction.
As with many other companies during 2023, Bethesda made several sweeping layoffs to its subsidiaries. One of the most shocking was Tango Gameworks, which was hit with such a large layoff that the team shut down entirely. Given the recent success of Hi-Fi Rush, this was especially insulting to many gamers. Fortunately, the Korean company Krafton salvaged the studio, leaving hope for the future. As for Bethesda, they became yet another respected developer caught in the winds of mergers and layoffs.
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