What Are Bethesda Working On… A Look At Their Studios
2024 was meant to be a grand year for Bethesda, they had decent success with Starfield after the bomb that was Redfall in 2023 and many were hoping for Indiana Jones to release.
While Indiana Jones and the Great Circle did release, and was fantastic, Xbox kicked off the year by revealing that 4 studios from the Bethesda family were being closed. The reasons for the closures were shit, that is just as simple as you can put it with Jill Braff, the Head of Bethesda & Microsoft Casual Game Studios saying this:
“It’s hard to support nine studios all across the world with a lean central team with an ever-growing plate of things to do.”
Which is honestly as nearsighted as you can get. If the leader has too many studios to manage, get another leader. If a school teacher has too many kids in a class, you would get another teacher and split the class, rather than just cull some of the student.
These are the studios that were impacted by the decision:
Alpha Dog Games
Arkane Austin
Roundhouse Studios LLC
Tango Gameworks
Now it is not all doom and gloom for the studios. Tango Gameworks was bought by Krafton, and just came back online and Roundhouse Games were merged into the Zenimax Online team. Some staff from Arkane Austin were given the choice to move to Bethesda Game Studios Austin, but for Alpha Dog Games, they were just closed entirely.
Of course, before the closure of Tango Gameworks, they did bring Hi-fi Rush to PlayStation 5, which is a good segue to call out all the releases from Bethesda in 2024. Those titles that have been bolded are original releases:
Hi-Fi Rush - PlayStation 5
The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road
Doom
Doom II
The Elder Scrolls: Castles
Starfield: Shattered Space
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
So that is what happened in 2024, but what about the year to come? Let us take a look.
Arkane
Last Game Released: Deathloop | Series: Dishonored series
I know that Redfall was technically the last game from the Arkane group, but was worked on by the now defunct Austin team, this is about the Lyon branch and their last game was Deathloop. We have just past a year since Marvel’s Blade was revealed to be in development by Arkane Studios and in that time, we have heard nothing. All we really know is the following, Marvel’s Blade is a mature, single-player, third-person game set in the heart of Paris.
The studio has a number of jobs open, at the time of writing and as such we are unlikely to see anything for a bit. That being said, I could see a new trailer coming out during the Xbox June Showcase, just to bring some attention back to the game.
Bethesda game studios
Locations: Washington D.C., USA | Austin, USA | Dallas, USA | Montreal, Canada
Last Game Released: The Elder Scrolls: Castles | Series: The Elder Scrolls series, Fallout series
The Bethesda Game Studios team is a bit of an odd one, their main studio is located in Washington D.C., well in a suburb of it to be exact and that is where The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Starfield come from. The Austin team is where Fallout 76 and all its content comes from, with the Dallas and Montreal studios supporting where needed. 2024 was a big year for the group, Starfield got its first expansion in Shattered Space, plus it got a host of curated content from the devs and community. Fallout 76 got four big expansions in Atlantic City, Skyline Valley, Milepost Zero and Gleaming Depths, plus countless other updates as well. Finally The Elder Scrolls: Castles released in full around the world, giving players a new way to experience an Elder Scrolls adventure.
So what does 2025 hold for the group? Starting with Fallout 76, we know that there will be a host of updates, the first big one is in March when the Ghoul update will arrive for players. We know that the usual seasonal updates will take place, but in the Winter months fishing will come to the game, which is sure to make some folks quite happy. As for Starfield, that is harder to predict as there is no confirmation on any plans, at least not yet. There is hope for a second expansion, the premium edition used to state it included the first expansion, so who knows if that is indicating more. There is also the chance that Starfield will make a grav-jump onto PlayStation 5, but there is no word on that.
Now for The Elder Scrolls, first up Castles. That game will keep getting updates across the year, their size and frequency is not know. The Elder Scrolls VI had entered into production in 2024, and while that is good news, there is not a snowballs chance in hell that we see anything from the game this year, baring some random leak.
id Software
Locations: Dallas, USA | Frankfurt, Germany
Last Game Released: Quake Champions | Series: DOOM series, Quake series, Commander Keen series
DOOM: The Dark Ages is coming in 2025, nothing more needs to be said. Oh, wait we should expand upon that, as its kind of the whole point. You might notice above that Frankfurt is also home to an id Software studio, that is because that is where the tech is made for the games, with the Dallas branch being where the games are made, though there is crossover between the two.
Pre-production was started for the game at the end of 2021, so they have been working on this one for a while. The story will be that of a prequel to the 2016 DOOM, so you won’t need to have played the other games for this one, but you should. The game will of course release on Xbox Series X|S, PC and PlayStation 5, which surprised many people, however given the other DOOM titles hit Switch, I am hoping Switch 2 is included in this, once that console is announced.
MACHINEGAMES
Last Game Released: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle | Series: Wolfenstein series
So Machinegames went quiet for a few years, but just after we published our Bethesda addition of the 2024 Publisher Preview series, they finally revealed their Indiana Jones game. Of course, we had to wait from January all the way to December to play the game, but what a game.
Now while I would normally say that we wouldn’t hear from a studio when they just shipped again, like 4 weeks ago, but this time we know there is an expansion on the way. The Order of the Giants DLC will come sometime in the future, but there is no time frame on when it will come out. If I had to guess, a December release would feel right, give players a chance to enjoy the game. It would also give Bethesda’s other games a chance to breathe, along with the big RPGs coming from Xbox.
Zenimax Online Studios
Locations: Maryland, USA | San Diego, USA | Budapest, Hungry | Seattle, USA | Madison, USA
Last Game Released: The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road | Series: The Elder Scrolls Online
2024 saw The Elder Scrolls Online return to the western part of Cyrodill with Skingrad and the Colovian Highlands. There were of course a whole lot updates to the game, they continued the story from the Necrom expansion as well, which people liked.
After years of having a giant expansion every year, along with a host of updates leading into it and from it, 2025 will change things up in a big way. The game will change to a more seasonal approach, with seasons lasting three or six months. The team are also planning on changing up the size of the updates, with more smaller ones planned, but there are still a lot of larger contents planned for release.
Finally, the studio still has their mystery game in development, which was being created by the folks in San Diego. The problem is that it has been years since it was announced and nothing has happened since. Some of the folks who started the new studio have left already, but there are some still present. They are hiring for assorted jobs, but nothing in the jobs hinting at whatever the new AAA experience is, even if they are for it. Given the studio was formed in December 2020, one would hope the game is announced this year, even if its still a few years away from release.
There we go, Bethesda and their various teams and projects. They are a much smaller group with the closures earlier in 2024, but they are still set to deliver some big games across 2025. So what do you say? Were we on track with our guess, be sure to let us know.
