Bethesda Softworks

	For the Fallout 3 location, see Bethesda ruins.

Bethesda Softworks is a developer and publisher of computer and video games, owned by ZeniMax Media.

Background

Founded in 1986 by Christopher Weaver, the company moved to Rockville, Maryland in 1990.^[1] In 1999, Weaver and Robert A. Altman founded ZeniMax Media, Inc. In 2001, Bethesda Softworks became a publisher only and the newly formed Bethesda Game Studios became the developer of their games. The company created The Elder Scrolls RPG series. The first chapter of the series, titled The Elder Scrolls: Arena, was released in 1994.

In 2007, the Fallout franchise was acquired by Bethesda Softworks from Interplay Productions and the development of Fallout 3 was handed over to Bethesda Game Studios.^[2] Fallout 3 was released on October 28, 2008. Obsidian Entertainment's title Fallout: New Vegas was published by Bethesda Softworks, announced on April 20, 2009 and released on October 19, 2010. Fallout 4 was announced on June 4, 2015 and released on November 10, 2015. Fallout 76 was announced on May 30, 2018 and released on November 14, 2018.

Games

Fallout 3

The Fallout 3 team.

In 2004, Bethesda licensed the rights to develop Fallout 3 and two additional sequels from Interplay Entertainment, and in 2007 acquired the whole Fallout franchise. Todd Howard said in January 2007 that "We started work (on Fallout 3) in late 2004 with a few people. We only had about 10 people on it until Oblivion wrapped, but most of our staff is on it now."

Fallout 3 was released on October 28, 2008 and won over 60 Game of the Year Awards – including honors from IGN, the Game Developers' Choice Awards and Game Critics Awards. Bethesda continued to support Fallout 3 with five add-ons – Operation: Anchorage, The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta.

Fallout: New Vegas

In 2009, Bethesda Softworks announced Fallout: New Vegas, a new entry in the Fallout series. It is important to note that Bethesda only published New Vegas, which was developed by Obsidian Entertainment. The U.S. release date was October 19, 2010, and three days later it was released in the U.K. On January 28, 2011, Bethesda confirmed a deal made with Namco Bandai to let them publish New Vegas in continental Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Bethesda also published the four Fallout: New Vegas add-ons: Dead Money, Old World Blues, Lonesome Road and Honest Hearts.

Fallout 4

Bethesda at the time of Fallout 4.

In 2015, Bethesda Softworks announced the continuation of the Fallout series with Fallout 4 and released a trailer. More information was showcased at Bethesda's E3 conference that year. Fallout 4 was released on November 10, 2015, except in Japan, where it was released on December 17 of the same year.

Seven add-ons were also released by Bethesda for Fallout 4, including Automatron, Wasteland Workshop, Far Harbor, Contraptions Workshop, Vault-Tec Workshop, Nuka-World and the High Resolution Texture Pack.

Fallout 76

In 2018, Bethesda announced the next entry into the Fallout series, Fallout 76, with a teaser trailer. More information was released during Bethesda's E3 conference on June 10, 2018. A brief B.E.T.A. was available for people who pre-ordered the game on October 23, 2018, for Xbox One, and October 30, 2018, for PlayStation 4 and PC. The game was released on November 14, 2018.

References