Elder Scrolls and Fallout devs Bethesda want to release games more often, but making them last is more important

30.04.2024 - 11:47 / rockpapershotgun.com / Todd Howard / Emil Pagliarulo / Bethesda Softworks

Bethesda Games Studios are thinking about how they can release games more frequently while still ensuring that they have a healthy audience for years, the Elder Scrolls company's king wizard Todd Howard has remarked in an interview with Kinda Funny, from which Alice B has already scientifically extracted some titbits about forthcoming Starfield expansion Shattered Space.

Howard himself has been at Bethesda for 30 years, and is in his mid-50s. Asked by host Greg Miller whether he's thought about retiring, given that Bethesda's numbered titles take "forever" to develop, Howard said: no. "I don't want to ever stop. I just, you know, it's too much fun. I love the work, I love the products, if I didn't make these games I would just be playing them all the time."

He conceded, however, that "they do take a long time, and so I think one of the things that that we're focused on here is obviously making sure of the highest quality, but also you know, finding ways to increase our output, because we don't want to wait that long either, right - it's never our plan. But we want to make sure that we get it right, and so my hope is to do it kind of as long as possible. I have no plans of retiring or anything like that."

There are approximately nine years between the launch dates of Fallout 4 and Starfield. The latter saw frequent delays - as, in fairness, did many blockbuster videogames created during the pandemic lockdowns. Hence Bethesda's reputation for taking their time, but 'twas not ever thus: they released two numbered Elder Scrolls titles and Fallout 3 during the noughties, with the immortal Skyrim landing shortly after the turn of the decade. Since then, the cost and complexity of videogame blockbusters has risen dramatically, with five year development periods not uncommon, and games often landing well after their core concepts have fallen behind the trend.

That's some back-of-the-napkin commentary, anyway: as Starfield's design director Emil Pagliarulo put it on Xitter earlier this month, "development times can vary for a variety of reasons". Regarding Starfield, he added that "we spent a lot of time updating and developing tech. We also paused for a bit to assist with Fallout 76." In a subsequent tweet, Pagliarulo stressed the importance of giving teams time to cook. "We can't do everything at once. Institute scientists are hard at work on cloning initiatives!"

It's a good question. A complicated question. Not specific to any of our games, but development times can vary for a variety of reasons. On Starfield, we spent a lot of time updating and developing tech. We also paused for a bit to assist with Fallout 76.

Bethesda Game Studios have made a bunch of other things since Fallout 4's release, of course.