Bethesda was ever present at yesterday’s Xbox Games Showcase. They showed off an expansion for one title and went deeper than ever into their upcoming space adventure that fans have been waiting years for. Bethesda is known for making some of the best games on the planet, but they’re also known for being long in their development times. The game everyone cites as proof of this is not their next game, but The Elder Scrolls 6. The title was announced in 2018 with a brief teaser, and nothing has come from the title since then, which has left fans a little miffed.
Todd Howard, one of the heads of Bethesda, has been adamant for some time that while Bethesda is a big company, they don’t rush things. They, not unlike Nintendo, believe in giving games the “time they need” to grow and become the titles they must be to be good. If you look at many of their past titles, they’ve followed this mantra well, with one big exception. You know what it is.
In a chat with IGN, Todd admitted that he wishes they could make games faster. But he insisted that speed “wasn’t the goal” regarding their game development process. It’s quality that has to shine above everything else.
While that makes better games, it ensures plenty of time goes by as they try to make them great. So when it comes to the next entry of their fantasy RPG franchise, Todd Howard is wondering if it’s the end of the road for him:
“And then as we look to an Elder Scrolls 6, that is one where… I probably shouldn’t say this. But if I do the math, I’m not getting any younger. How long do people play Elder Scrolls for? That may be the last one I do. I don’t know.”
That might simply be a case of Todd being funny, but he’s not wrong about time and him “getting younger.” He’s currently 52, and even if it takes another year or two to get this game done, that puts him closer to 55.
To be fair, the video game industry is rather age exclusive, there are plenty of “older people” in the industry still that can do good work, and Howard has proved that he’s a great leader. But then again, he might take the path of someone like Reggie Fils-Aime and go out on top so he can try other things. Only he knows the answer to his future.
