Though much of his efforts are currently focused on Fallout 76, a multiplayer-focused survival game that serves as a prequel to other Fallout titles, director Todd Howard is also involved with Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6. Both games were highly rumoured heading into E3 2018, but we never really expected to hear of them, especially in the case of the latter, which, by no coincidence, is bound for next-gen hardware.

The commitment to single-player experiences even with Fallout 76 coming is obvious, then. That said, Howard and Bethesda VP of public relations and marketing Pete Hines want players to be patient for these games because they will “take a while”.

Speaking to The Guardian, Howard stated, “We’ve been talking about it for a decade, we started putting things on paper five, six years ago, and active development was from when we finished Fallout 4, so two and a half, three years. Everyone should be very patient [for Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6]. It’s gonna take a while for what we have in mind to come out.”

Hines further reiterated that “Single-player is still a thing; it might continue to grow or evolve, but it’s part of who we are, and we still think there’s room to be successful. That doesn’t mean that we should keep doing things the way we did five or 10 years ago–we’ve got to continue to change how we approach it.”

Howard also understands the concern over single-player games being given less importance as time goes on. “Games have gotten so big and interesting that they’ve moved beyond the toy/entertainment space. It’s not just a diversion from their regular lives; for a lot of people, it becomes an important part of their lives. I think we see that across a lot of games now, where people are getting joy and personal pride out of the time they spend in them…

“Games are unique in that. They can put you in a place; they transport you. That’s why we’ve always done big, open-world stuff: it’s what a game does really well. We like technology, we like storytelling, we like art. But saying, ‘Hey, look what we made the game do’ – that is, on a day-to-day basis, on a week-to-week basis, the most rewarding.”

Even with its multiplayer focus, Bethesda has promised single-player servers after launch along with mod support and private parties. Fallout 76 is out on November 14th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Ever since it released in 2010, Fallout: New Vegas (which is now playable on Xbox One) has had a dedicated legion of fans. Obsidian Entertainment (of Pillars of Eternity fame) helmed development and despite numerous bugs, many consider its interpretation of the universe better than Bethesda Game Studios’ own Fallout 4.

Fallout: New Vegas would be the last title that Bethesda would outsource to a third-party studio, even with fans asking for Obsidian to develop another Fallout game. Even the developer itself doesn’t mind. Could we see another studio take up the helm on a future, Bethesda series game? “Never say never”, according to Fallout 76 director Todd Howard, but it’s becoming less likely in this day and age.

Speaking to The Guardian about the development of Fallout: New Vegas, Howard said, “I wouldn’t say never. [But] now that our company is so big, it’s always better to keep stuff internal… it becomes less likely, but I could never say never. I thought the Obsidian guys did a fabulous job.”

While we’re on the unfulfilled wishes train, Howard also talked about the possibility of older titles receiving remasters. Howard made some recent comments about not re-releasing The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim if fans would stop purchasing it. That being said, he’s also a believer in experiencing old games as they were at launch.

“For Skyrim Remastered, we had done some work on it but it was already pretty visually close. But for something like Morrowind, my personal preference is not to remaster it. We [also] get asked a lot to remaster [1997’s] Fallout 1, and I usually say, if you have a PC you can play Fallout the way it was. I think that’s how it should be.

“I think streaming technology is definitely coming, and it’s gonna make people’s access to games infinitely easier. You’ve seen it happen to music and movies and I think it’s a great thing.”

As for Fallout 76, it’s out on November 14th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Bethesda Game Studios led many fans by the hand as it announced long-awaited titles like Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6. The problem is that those games are out in the far future- even if Starfield could have a current gen release. This year, we’ll have to remain content with Fallout 76, which takes the post-apocalyptic survival gameplay into an online setting.

It’s not like Bethesda hasn’t prepared for the reaction that Fallout 76 has received. However, while it’s going for a games-as-a-service model, which includes free DLC and updates funded by microtransactions, director Todd Howard wants to remind everyone that this isn’t the future of Bethesda.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz Howard said, “It doesn’t mark the future. Corporately we’ve done a mix—people forget sometimes. Elder Scrolls Online is one of the biggest online games in the world, we have Fallout Shelter which we keep updating, and Elder Scrolls: Legends.”

“Anyone who has ever said ‘this is the future and this part of gaming is dead’ has been proven wrong every single time,” he continued. “We like to try it all. For a long time we wanted to try a multiplayer game and we had this idea. We shouldn’t be afraid. We should try it.”

Bethesda’s commitment to single-player titles has been clear, as evidenced by RAGE 2 and Wolfenstein: Youngblood (which can also be played co-op) releasing in 2019, while DOOM: Eternal is also in development. Fallout 76 will have a pretty strong focus in the coming years, but traditional open-world Bethesda games are also on the way. Besides, Fallout 76 will also have single-player servers after launch, if that’s any consolation.

Fallout 76 releases on November 14th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Yes, you’ve heard it many times before – The Elder Scrolls 6 isn’t in development. It may be the next Elder Scrolls game rather than a Morrowind or Oblivion remaster but it’s not currently in development.

In a recent story by PC Games N, it was erroneously noted that the game was actually being made and Pete Hines, Bethesda VP of marketing and PR, clarified some things on Twitter. “FYI, The Elder Scrolls 6 isn’t in development. We simply said we would make it eventually. Don’t want people to be misled.”

With the original story being corrected, Hines further noted comments by Todd Howard at E3 2016 when the latter said he knew what the next Elder Scrolls would be about. “He was saying he knew what that game would be, not that it was being worked on. Folks have gotten confused on that point.”

What does this all mean? That at the end of the day, again, The Elder Scrolls 6 isn’t in development.

Or it could be in pre-production or the planning stages instead of actual development. Who’s to say but Bethesda? What do you think? Let us know below.

E3 2014 is over and done with and there’s still been no announcement of Fallout 4. Bethesda Softworks’ Todd Howard did talk to Gamestar about his next game before the expo happened though and explained how – despite being excited about it – they were taking things slowly.

“We get asked a lot, I sort of tell people we’re figuring things out. We’re taking our time, we’re extremely excited about it and the reason we’re kind of holding back right now is because we want to wait until it’s really there to show it to everybody. We don’t want to kind of dribble it out, we’d rather say, you know, ‘surprise, boom, here it is.’ And make sure that moment of learning about something and seeing for the first time is really… I enjoy those moments for other games so we’d rather hold back and wait and just surprise everybody.”

What about all those rumours and fake announcements that have been flying around regarding a particular post-apocalyptic sequel? “You know, we’re used to that stuff over the years. Our fans are awesome. When they’re not making mods they’re making fake announcements. So I think everybody gets it and they know and they’re willing to give us the time and hopefully they’ll love what we’re working on.”

So while Fallout 4 hasn’t been confirmed, there’s certainly something going on at Bethesda. Stay tuned for more.

We know the importance of game mods and how awesome they are, but it’s nice to see a prolific game developer talk about them in the same vein as we do. In an interview with G4TV, Todd Howard said that mods are very important for a good single player experience and attract a lot of crowds, giving Bethesda some great community spotlights.

He said that he doesn’t like the fact that so many game companies do not even allow gamers to create their own mods, saying that they instead rely on DLCs, which obviously isn’t half as effective and fun as modding tools are.

He went on to mention a few mods for the game, like the Macho Dragon Mod and the Portal 2′s Space Core Mod and talked about how amazed the development team, him included, is with them.

I guess modding is a better option when compared to DRM and piracy blocking- sarcasm intended.

Bethesda recently released the Creation Kit for Skyrim (as well as a Skyrim Workshop), which was received with a lot of praise by fans, and we believe it truly can change the way we play Skyrim. We have seen so many awesome mods already- like the FXAA injector that improves the lighting heavily, or the epic Battle for Skyrim, and the tons of mods Bethesda themselves developed and showed off recently.

There’s also the new lighting mod which makes Skyrim look absolutely gorgeous, so you should try that out. We even compiled a list of the ten best visually enhancing mods, so have a look at that here, if you want.

Do you agree with Howard? Tell us in your comments below.

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