Bethesda Softworks

Work in Progress, Will have pics and links very soon

About

Bethesda Softworks, LLCis a subsidiary of Zenimax Media and is a video game developer and publisher best known for developing titles such as “The Elder Scrolls” series and the later instalments of the “Fallout” series.

History

Bethesda Softworks was founded in 1985 by Christopher Weaver in Bethesda, Maryland. At that time the company was best known for creating games for the Amiga and Atari ST systems, their best known title at this time being “Wayne Gretzky Hockey”. In 1990 the company moved to Rockville, Maryland and since then have been creating video games for numerous platforms with DOS and eventually Windows being the primary platform for their games.

With regards to the name of the company, Company President Vlatko Andonov recalls; "Weaver had originally wanted to call the company “Softworks”, but found the name taken. So, our founder, sitting at his kitchen table in Bethesda decided after laborious thought to add Bethesda to Softworks and there you have it!"

In 1993 Bethesda released the first game in what would be a turning point for the company and what started its most well known franchise, The Elder Scrolls: Arena. The inital launch of the game however was plauged by various issues such as poor reviews, bugs and the game being demanding on user hardware. But regardless of this, it grew a cult following and spawned a sequel in 1996 with The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. This sequel began what would become standard across most games created in house at Bethesda Softworks, a fan driven modding scene.

In 1999, the company was acquired by ZeniMax Media Inc., a company founded by Bethesda Softworks founder, Christopher Weaver and Robert A. Altman. During this time between 1999 and 2001, Bethesda Softworks created and published mostly sport simulators and racing games. Due to the limited success of these titles, Bethesda Softworks was nearing bankruptcy by the beginning of 2002.

In May 2002, a subsidiary of Bethesda Softworks, “Bethesda Game Studios” released what became Bethesda Softworks most successful title at that time and what saved the company from bankruptcy; The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. It was lauded by critics for its breadth of scope, player freedom and visuals. The game eventually sold over four million copies.

In 2004, After being petitioned by Todd Howard who was project lead for Morrowind, Bethesda Softworks bought the rights to the Fallout IP from Interplay Entertainment, and started development on Fallout 3 the same year.

Since then Bethesda Softworks has grew into a multi-studio publisher with many different franchises under their brand. These studios include “Bethesda Game Studios” (The Elder Scrolls, Fallout), “Arkane Games” (Dishonoured), iD Software (Doom, Quake), “Machinegames” (Wolfenstein).

Notable Members

Todd Howard

Todd Howard was the Project Lead of “The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind” and since then has been Executive Producer of every “The Elder Scrolls” and “Fallout” game developed by Bethesda Game Studios.

Howard has been the public face of Bethesda Game Studios since The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and is the spokesman for every game which is either being revealed by Bethesda Game Studios or awarded too. Due to this, some of his sayings have spawned memes used by the Bethesda fan community and to a lesser extent, the internet in general.

Notable Series

The Elder Scrolls

The Elder Scrolls is a first person sandbox role-playing video game series that takes place in the fantasy land of Nirn. It has be lauded by critics for its breadth of scope, player freedom and visuals and has a place as one of the highest selling game series of all time.

Fallout

Fallout is a role-playing video game series originally created by Interplay Entertainment and Black Isle Studios and currently developed by Bethesda Softworks. The games take place in a retro-futuristic 22nd and 23rd century in North America where humanity is trying to survive in a world devastated by the effects of full nuclear war. Its story and artwork are heavily influenced by the post-World War II nuclear paranoia of the 1950s.

Dishonored

Dishonored is a first person stealth-action game developed by Arkane Studios, creators of Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. The project is headed by Harvey Smith (Co-creative director), the lead designer of Deus Ex, and Raph Colantonio, the founder of Arkane Studios. Viktor Antonov, the visual design director, who also designed most of the style of City 17, the Combine architecture, and their technology in Half-Life 2, has said that the game has a Lovecraftian feel to it, and draws some inspiration from Half-Life 2.

Doom

Doom is a first-person shooter video game series created by id Software. In the game, the player assumes the role of a space marine who fights against hordes of demons to thwart an invasion from Hell.

Related Memes

“Todd Howard tells me lies.”

Todd Howard tells me lies (or Todd the Liar) is a YouTube video fad which started in early 2012. Its creation and spread was caused by Todd Howard of Bethesda Games Studio stating that the supported modding tools for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim would be released in early January 2012. Bethesda Game Studios then missed this deadline which caused YouTube User “newtee2” to release a video titled “Creation Kit to be released in January” with consisted of pictures of Todd Howard with the song Little Lies by Fleetwood Mac playing over the montage.

This has lead to other Bethesda Fans to copy the style of the video with other titles poking fun at Bethesda’s previously missed deadlines and missing features in their games.

See “X”? you can “X”

See “X”? You can “X” is a saying which has been used by the Bethesda fan community to poke fun at the gameplay freedom associated with Bethesda Game Studio games. This came about due to Executive Producer Todd Howard’s phase during the gameplay reveal of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Howard when speaking about the Mountains in the game stated that “See That Mountain? You Can Climb It.”.
Members of the community started referring to this choice of words by changing the words into humorous combinations. i.e. “See those guns, You can shoot them.”, “See those games, You can play them”.

It Just Works

It Just Works is a phase used by Todd Howard during the Fallout 4 gameplay reveal. Fans of the series have began using the phase to refer to the fact each Bethesda Games Studio game in the past have been released with a fair number of bugs making the phase “It Just Works” unintentionally Humorous.

Search Interest

External References