It’s clear that Bethesda Game Studios is one of the most important game developers out there, so it’s logical that gamers worldwide will be paying attention to news coming out of the studio, especially if it’s Todd Howard who’s doing the talking. And Bethesda’s venerable head honcho recently got to speak his mind about the developer’s upcoming games during an interview on the Kinda Funny podcast (via VGC.com), shedding light on what’s going on with the studio’s major franchises…
Of course, if there’s one game in Bethesda fans’ minds and gamers in general no doubt this is The Elder Scrolls VI, the eagerly awaited successor to Skyrim. However, despite saying the game had passed a “big milestone” and the studio was “happy with it”, and even that the next chapter of the Elder Scrolls saga was in a playable state now, Howard admitted that it is “going to be a while” before the game arrives in the podcast.
This is disappointing, of course, as The Elder Scrolls VI was announced way back in 2018, something that Howard has admitted he regretted in the past. Hopefully, though, the game won’t take too long to arrive, as Howard also said that most of the people at the studio are currently working on it (that’s about 500 devs at Bethesda, plus any other external studio the company is outsourcing development duties to as well).
On a positive note, the man did say that Bethesda will be returning to its classic role-playing formula seen in games like Skyrim and Fallout 4, implying the studio will be ditching the gameplay experiments it tried out in its multiplayer Fallout 76 game and its sci-fi space adventure Starfield.
And speaking of Starfield, that’s one game which will be getting an important update soon, as Todd Howard himself admitted in the interview. However, Bethesda’s boss has said this won’t be “Starfield 2.0”. And on a slightly disappointing note, Howard said only those who liked Starfield will enjoy the updates and changes, which amongst other things add to and tweak the game’s outer space gameplay.
“It’s the kind of thing where if you love Starfield, we think you’re going to love this”, said the man, but also that if you “bounced off it or found it boring in places” then the update won’t “change that fundamentally”, which could douse the enthusiasm of those looking to give the game another go after not falling in love with it back in 2023.
Starfield, though, will almost certainly be hitting the PS5 this spring, together with an expansion which supposedly will be called “Terran Armada”.
The Elder Scrolls VI was announced back in 2018, but Bethesda is yet to reveal anything about the game.
Besides Starfield and TES VI, Howard also spoke about Bethesda’s Fallout series. The last entry in the series was released in 2018, but it wasn’t a single player experience at launch, although it has evolved over the years and is now mostly a single player game with some multiplayer elements like co-op and other social in-game events. Fallout 76 is still getting content via free DLC, and amongst other things will get a next-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S this year.
Despite this, Howard said in the interview that the company has “irons in the fire”, and that “multiple” Fallout games are on the way. Of course, this makes sense taking into account the success of the Fallout TV series (now in season 2), even if a game like Fallout 5 will almost certainly not arrive until the 2030s, taking into account all the stuff the studio has in its hands right now… However, the rumored remaster of Fallout 3 (2008’s Game of the Year) might not take so long to arrive, as its probably being mostly handled by an external studio like last year’s Oblivion remaster was.
Right now, though, many gamers will be looking forward to the next major update for Starfield, which while not as game-changing as many expected as Todd Howard has now revealed, is still exciting, together with the upcoming PS5 version of the space-faring game. Plus, it would be also great to see Bethesda show off The Elder Scrolls VI sooner rather than later, something which will no doubt bring a smile to fans and anybody looking to play the eagerly anticipated RPG in the future.