Bethesda Game Studios

Bethesda Game Studios was formed in 2001, when ZeniMax Media decided to split Bethesda Softworks' two activities: publishing stayed with Bethesda Softworks and the development team became a studio of its own. ZeniMax's Robert A. Altman wanted that unit to grow. The studio is based in Rockville, Maryland, sits under Bethesda Softworks and is led by Todd Howard as executive producer, alongside Ashley Cheng and Angela Browder.

Its first major game was The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002), with two expansions, Tribunal and Bloodmoon. In the meantime it also made racing games such as IHRA Professional Drag Racing 2005. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) and Fallout 3 (2008) came next. That year Gamasutra named it one of its top five developers for bringing open-world role-playing, once a niche PC genre, to a broad multiplatform audience.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), its first game on the Creation Engine, won it Studio of the Year at the Spike Video Game Awards. In 2015 it released Fallout 4 and moved into mobile with Fallout Shelter, made with Behaviour Interactive. That same year it opened a studio in Montreal, and in 2018 it was joined by teams in Austin, formerly BattleCry Studios, and Dallas, formerly Escalation Studios. Fallout 76 (2018) and The Elder Scrolls: Blades (2020) were its next games.

Microsoft bought ZeniMax in March 2021. Starfield, the company's first new intellectual property in 25 years, came out on 6 September 2023, followed in 2025 by The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, made with Virtuos. The studio is now working on The Elder Scrolls VI, with Fallout 5 to follow. In 2024 staff at all four of its studios unionised with the Communications Workers of America.