Bethesda Game Studios facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Bethesda Game Studios

Type	Division
Industry	Video games
Founded	2001; 24 years ago (2001)
Headquarters	Rockville, Maryland , US
Number of locations	4 (2024)
Key people	Angela Browder (studio director) Ashley Cheng (managing director) Todd Howard (executive producer)
Products	The Elder Scrolls series (2002–present) Fallout series (2008–present) Starfield (2023)
Number of employees	>450 (2023)
Parent	Bethesda Softworks

Bethesda Game Studios is a well-known American company that creates video games. It is located in Rockville, Maryland. This studio is famous for its exciting action role-playing games. Some of their most popular game series include The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Starfield.

Bethesda Game Studios started in 2001. It was created as the game-making part of Bethesda Softworks. Todd Howard is a main leader, working with Ashley Cheng and Angela Browder. As of late 2023, more than 450 people worked at Bethesda Game Studios.

History of Bethesda Game Studios

Bethesda Game Studios began in 2001. Before that, Bethesda Softworks made and published games. The company was then reorganized under ZeniMax Media. ZeniMax wanted to make the game development part bigger. So, Bethesda Game Studios was created with about 40 people.

Becoming a Top Game Developer

By 2008, Bethesda Game Studios was seen as one of the best game makers. This was because of their popular fantasy world, The Elder Scrolls. Also, their game Fallout 3 was highly praised. Bethesda became known for making huge, open-world, single-player role-playing games (RPGs). These games were very successful. They helped bring a type of game once popular mainly on computers to many players on different game systems.

Growing with New Studios

In December 2015, Bethesda Game Studios opened a new office in Montreal, Canada. Yves Lachance, who used to lead another game studio, became its head. In 2018, two other studios joined Bethesda Game Studios. BattleCry Studios became Bethesda Game Studios Austin in March. Escalation Studios became Bethesda Game Studios Dallas in August. Microsoft bought ZeniMax, the parent company, in March 2021.

Employee Unions

All four Bethesda Game Studios locations have groups that represent their employees. These groups are part of the Communications Workers of America. This means employees in both the United States and Canada have a voice. These are the first "wall to wall" unions within a Microsoft company.

In July 2024, 241 employees in the U.S. formed a union called "OneBGS." This group includes artists, developers, and engineers. It covers employees in Austin, Dallas, Texas, and Rockville, Maryland. The Montreal studio also formed a union in August 2024.

Game-Making Technology

Bethesda Game Studios uses its own special technology called the Creation Engine. This engine helps them build their large, open-world games.

Bethesda Game Studios Locations

Bethesda Game Studios Austin

BattleCry Studios opened in Austin, Texas, in October 2012. It started hiring developers who knew about online games. The studio announced its first game, BattleCry, in May 2014. However, the game was later canceled. The Austin studio then helped Bethesda Game Studios. They worked on making the Creation Engine support multiplayer games for Fallout 76. They also helped with the multiplayer parts of Doom. In March 2018, BattleCry Studios became Bethesda Game Studios Austin.

Bethesda Game Studios Dallas

Escalation Studios was started in 2007 by Tom Mustaine, Marc Tardif, and Shawn Green. A company called 6waves Lolapps bought the studio in 2012. Later, Escalation Studios became independent again. ZeniMax Media then bought it in February 2017. In August 2018, it joined Bethesda Game Studios and was renamed Bethesda Game Studios Dallas. This studio immediately started helping with the game Starfield.

Bethesda Game Studios Montreal

Bethesda Game Studios announced its new office in Montreal, Canada, in December 2015. At that time, it had 40 developers. This studio immediately took over the mobile game Fallout Shelter. The developers at the Montreal studio decided to form a union in June 2024.

Games Developed by Bethesda Game Studios

Bethesda Game Studios mainly develops role-playing video games. Their The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series are for game consoles and computers. Most of these games have been very successful and popular.

In 2015, the studio started making games for mobile phones with Fallout Shelter. This game was very popular, reaching 50 million players by mid-2016. In 2018, they released another mobile game, The Elder Scrolls: Blades.

In 2016, it was confirmed that The Elder Scrolls VI was being developed, but it would take a long time to finish. Two other big games were planned to be released before it. On May 30, 2018, Fallout 76 was announced. Then, in June 2018, the company showed off Starfield. This was their first completely new game idea in 25 years. Starfield was released on September 6, 2023, for computers and Xbox Series X/S. It was also confirmed that Fallout 5 would start development after The Elder Scrolls VI is finished.

Game Expansions

Bethesda Game Studios also creates expansion packs for their games. These are like extra content or new stories added to a game after it's released.

Awards and Recognition

Bethesda Game Studios has won several awards for its work:

• In 2008, Gamasutra named them one of the Top Five Developers.
• In 2011, they won Studio of the Year at the Spike Video Game Awards.
• In 2015, they were nominated for Developer of the Year at The Game Awards.

See also

In Spanish: Bethesda Game Studios para niños