Bethesda Game Studios was established in 2001. Previously,Bethesda Softworks, then a developer and publisher, had been reorganized as asubsidiary ofZeniMax Media. ZeniMax'sRobert A. Altman sought to grow the development unit, which was spun off from Bethesda Softworks as Bethesda Game Studios, starting out with roughly 40 people.[2][3]
By 2008, Bethesda Game Studios was considered one of the industry's top developers due to the reputation ofThe Elder Scrolls fantasy universe and the critically acclaimedFallout 3. 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,” wroteGamasutra in their year-end best-of list.[4]
In December 2015, Bethesda Game Studios opened a satellite studio inMontreal under the leadership of Yves Lachance, the former head ofBehaviour Interactive.[5] In 2018, two ZeniMaxi-owned studios became part of Bethesda Game Studios:BattleCry Studios was renamed Bethesda Game Studios Austin in March, andEscalation Studios was turned into Bethesda Game Studios Dallas in August.[6][7]Microsoft acquiredZeniMax in March 2021.[8][9]
All four studios of Bethesda Game Studios haveunion representation withCommunications Workers of America which represent all employees in both the United States and Canada. These are the first "wall to wall" unions within a Microsoftbargaining unit.[10]
241 US employees unionized as "OneBGS" on July 20, 2024. The bargaining unit includes employees at three studios inAustin,Dallas, Texas andRockville, Maryland.[11] The unit includes artists, developers, and engineers; unlike its parent company ZeniMax, which exclusively represents QA testers.[10][12] TheMontreal studio of Bethesda Game Studios was certified on August 13, 2024 with support ofCommunications Workers of America Canada.[13]
ZeniMax Media announced the opening of BattleCry Studios inAustin, Texas, on October 3, 2012, with Rich Vogel as itspresident.[14] The studio immediately began hiring developers with experience inmicrotransactions andfree-to-play games, growing to roughly 35 employees by November 2013.[15][16] It announced its first project, the multiplayer combat gameBattleCry, in May 2014.[17] However, the studio laid off a significant portion of its staff in September 2015, followed by the cancellation ofBattleCry in October to focus on different projects.[18][19] Among these projects, it was tasked with modifying Bethesda Game Studios's Creation Engine to support multiplayer functionality forFallout 76, working with another sister studio,id Software, and repurposed somenetcode fromQuake.[20] BattleCry Studios then assisted Bethesda Game Studios on the game itself and in August 2016 replacedCertain Affinity in assisting id Software to develop multiplayer components forDoom.[21][22] Vogel left BattleCry Studios by September 2017 to join Certain Affinity.[23] In March 2018, BattleCry Studios, now under studio director Doug Mellencamp, was integrated into Bethesda Game Studios and renamed Bethesda Game Studios Austin.[24]
Tom Mustaine, Marc Tardif, andShawn Green founded Escalation Studios in 2007.[25][26] Mustaine had previously co-foundedRitual Entertainment, while Tardif had been anexecutive producer and thesenior vice president ofbusiness development atGearbox Software.[27][28] In January 2012, thesocial gaming company6waves Lolapps (6L) announced its acquisition of the studio on undisclosed terms.[26][29] Mustaine and Tardif became Escalation Studios's design directors, while Green acceded to 6L as its director of engineering.[26] At the time, Escalation had around 30 employees.[30] However, in March 2012, 6L announced it was laying off all of its development staff, keeping Escalation Studios active "in some capacity".[31] The studiospun off from 6L by May 2012.[32] ZeniMax Media then acquired it on February 1, 2017.[25][27] In August 2018, it was integrated with Bethesda Game Studios and renamed Bethesda Game Studios Dallas.[33] It immediately began assisting the studio onStarfield.[34]
Bethesda Game Studios announced the opening of aMontreal, Canada, office on December 9, 2015. At the time of the announcement, the studio employed 40 developers under studio director Yves Lachance.[35][36] Bethesda Game Studios had previously worked with Lachance on several projects while he was atBehaviour Interactive, includingFallout Shelter, which Bethesda Game Studios Montreal immediately took over.[35][37] In June 2024, the studio's developers announced their intent tounionize with support from the Canadian branch of theCommunications Workers of America.[38] Lachance left the studio in July to leadWB Games Montréal.[39]
In 2015, the studio entered into themobile gaming market withFallout Shelter 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 ofFallout Shelter.[42] This was revealed in 2018 to beThe Elder Scrolls: Blades.
In 2016, Howard confirmed that while they are developingThe Elder Scrolls VI, 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 toThe Elder Scrolls VI.[43] On May 30, 2018,Fallout 76 was announced.[44] On June 10, 2018, during Bethesda'sE3 2018 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 forPC andXbox Series X/S.Starfield released on September 6, 2023.[45][46] On June 14, 2022, Howard confirmed thatFallout 5 would start development after the completion ofThe Elder Scrolls VI, with the latter currently in the pre-production phase of development.[47]
