Bethesda's Future Plans Looking Plenty Ambitious

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Steve Anderson
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Bethesda's Future Plans Looking Plenty Ambitious

With time running out until the big release of Fallout 4--remember what it was like at the start of July, when November 10 looked like an eternity away--it's natural to start wondering about Bethesda's next title. But while the next title isn't exactly clear yet, what is clear is that Bethesda's got some very big plans afoot.

Some have already begun wondering if the next one in the barrel is a new Elder Scrolls, which would be about right given as Skyrim is on the other side of a lot of calendar pages; some might even say the appropriate number, given that it will be five years this November since our last non-MMO romp through Tamriel. But there's certainly room for more, here, and Bethesda's eager to take a bigger bite out of the market.

While talking to MCV, Pete Hines--Bethesda's top gun in the marketing department--noted that the company's ultimate aim was to release "...three or four big titles a year." Hines elaborated that he didn't want to end up like the company did in 2011, when it released four big titles and then "...went super quiet." No, it wanted to get to the point of "regular releases." Not so much eight to ten a year, of course, but rather one big release a quarter seemed about right by Hines' estimation.

Stop and wrap your head around that for a minute. Bethesda wants to bring out three or four games a year. That could be an exciting experience, especially if they're all as good as Bethesda can put out. I mean, no one's looking for a year swap between Elder Scrolls and Fallout. No one expects a new Fallout every two years, you know. But maybe every three? Now that'd be an exciting option.

Better yet, what if Bethesda started applying these mechanics to other genres altogether? We've got the post-apocalyptic sci-fi here, and we've got the fantasy role playing...but what about a straight horror game? And I'm not talking about "The Evil Within," either. I'm talking about a "Fallout" or "Elder Scrolls" kind of title in a horror environment. I'm talking about a game that would be like "State of Decay" on a scale so grandiose that "State of Decay" itself looks like its demonstration version. Can you imagine a zombie horror game with a building crafting mechanic? Take over the local mall and retrofit it to your specifications? Fight off other players? Enjoy a massive plot as you face down post-zombie horror psychopaths in the grandest "Dead Rising" tradition?

Translate it into an adventure title. Can you picture a straight action game, a "Tomb Raider" or "Uncharted" where you can search every drawer of an abandoned town? Sounds fun to me too.

There are a lot of options here, and given that Pete Hines also noted that "Fallout 4" has all the potential to be even bigger than "Skyrim" was, Bethesda may well be looking at the necessary capital coming in to step up its game a bit. It's got to be careful, of course, not to just start churning out games because it can, lest it go the way of a lot of triple-A studios. But more Bethesda is a hard thing to complain about at this stage, and we could well see it sooner than some might expect.


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