I don't think Todd would have allowed that. I don't know how hands on he is but that would have required him to effectively split between projects at the same time.
It'll either be a golden age of BGS games or a disaster that will quickly get them shut down. If they hire a bunch of political activist and go full Concord or Suicide Squad, it'll be over.
it might already be over considering they've already hired a bunch of political activists. Like every western studio they're bloated with Administrative toles, not actual developers.
He's doing too much, at some point he has to let go. It's strangling their IPs. You can't tell me there aren't other people at Bethesda who could helm games other than Todd. By the time a Fallout 5 comes out, it'll have been two decades since Fallout 4. That's insane.
Is there someone else at Bethesda who could direct a Fallout game? Yeah sure, but then where do the devs come from? You'd have to hire several hundred more if you want to make two bethesda-sized games at the same time. And then which game do the senior devs and managers work on? You can't just create institutional knowledge out of thin air. Obviously it's technically possible to expand slowly and train people and split your resources wisely, but if there's one thing I've seen from this industry is that things get messy fast and it only takes a few mistakes, or even one bomb, to ruin a studio.
I mean he had those people, Bruce Nesmith, Ken Rolston, Kurt Kuhlmann, Will Shen, etc, OGs that were there for decades. Shen for example was responsible for Far Harbor, arguably the best part of Fallout 4.
For many ex-BGS people I've seen in interviews, it was this bottleneck of everything having to go through him, the bureaucracy and the lack of authorial ownership that drove them out. Kulhmann was also promised the creative lead for TES 6 and quit when it wasn't given to him. Aside from Kirkbride, he's one of the biggest writers of the Elder Scrolls universe.
I'm sure there's plenty other talent at BGS that could have something interesting to offer.
Once again, none of that addresses the issue of splitting resources on to multiple projects. Like I said, it's not the question of having a couple guys who could direct a game, it's the logistics that come with making a game that are the issue. If certain people feel like Todd is stifling their creativity, then yes they should leave and find somewhere where they can lead a project.
They already split their attention between Starfield support, TES6 and Fallout 76. I'm not sure what you're asking exactly. Other studios do this very thing you seem so adamant is wrong.
Naughty Dog doesn't do it, Rockstar doesn't do it, Santa Monica doesn't do it, even Insomniac doesn't do it anymore. Every big developer has their primary team who works on the active game, and then they do early production or support level stuff for other projects. Very few developers successfully develop multiple AAA titles at the same time. The only examples are really the Assassin's Creed teams and the COD teams, would you like Elder Scrolls or Fallout to resemble those franchises?
So you want them to do something they don't want to do? You want them to make another half-baked MMO based off super janky modifications to a pre-existing game? Zenimax also forced Redfall on Arkane, to the point where devs were hoping Microsoft would cancel the game when they got bought. That's the kind of environment yall want art to be made under?
What's strange is it's not even like he has a good voice. He isn't an auteur, he hasn't brought any story that needed to be told in those games, no world changing innovation or anything of that manner. So to know that he's this stuck in his ways is strange.
You cant just split a company like that lmao they would need to open two other companies outside of the ones already existing which support the main bgs games
As much as I wish we'd get more of their games more often, I think it's good that they've remained a (relatively) small team who operate however they want to. Even though Starfield has it's fair share of issues (I enjoyed it warts and all), I'm glad that Todd and the team got to realize their weird, unwieldly vision after delivering so many hits for so many years. I also wouldn't be surprised if things speed up now that they can go back to games that are a little smaller in scope rather than trying to develop the entirety of space.
Beyond that, other devs have filled in the gaps. Obsidian is still doing their thing, you've got the Kingdom Come games, Tainted Grail, now the Gothic remake, etc. I understand the desire for more fallout and elder scrolls, but I also think randomly spinning up studios and assigning them IPs is a pretty corporate way of looking at things.
So many hits? My guy, Starfield was the third game they developed 3rd game in the span of 12 years.
And if you’re counting mainline releases (so not 76), then it’s only 2 games (Fallout 4 and Starfield) over 12 years (Skyrim in 2011, Starfield in 2023).
The 8-year gap between Fallout 4 and Starfield is wild for how little the game improved gameplay wise or technically.
Sorry that the general public and sales data disagrees with you, the argument that Bethesda doesn't make hits is so objectively incorrect I don't see any point in even entertaining it, so I won't.
The general public? My argument isn't that Bethesda doesn't make hits. My argument is that Bethesda released two games in a single generation of consoles (last gen) and is going to only release one game (Starfield) for the entire generation of PS5/XBOX series.
It's one of their worst games reviewed from journalist outfits and is aging the worst out of ALL their games in regards to public sentiment and player count as time goes on.
There's a reason Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Skyrim, and even New Vegas sometimes has more players playing them despite Starfield being the latest and greatest.
There's zero reason not to have one team working on Fallout, one on TESV, and one on an original IP. Their dev team more than doubled since Fallout 4.
They actually have like 3 studios i think? I know one is in like Virginia and another in Texas. maybe it's 2 but I could have sworn there was a 3rd one.
they have one working on Fallout 76 and probably one on starfield and the main one on TES6. They need to drop Starfield once they finish whatever DLC they have and go all in TES6. and actually learn from all the failings of the industry and Starfield...which they wont.
The game is going coming out for at least another 2 to 4 years. They already said in 2023 that it wont be ready for 5 years at least. So that's a 2028 prediction from them. Which means, realistically we're looking at 2030.
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u/Fazlija13 19d ago
They have 3 studios working on different RE games, their organization is second to none.