Bethesda’s Todd Howard has made it clear that the company’s future games will receive long-term support, a lesson learned from past experiences with Skyrim and Fallout 4. Despite the success of these two titles, Howard regrets not providing continued updates for a longer period.
While Skyrim and Fallout 4 received expansions and next-gen upgrades, Howard believes that more could have been done to extend their longevity. Bethesda now seems committed to correcting this with its more recent titles like Fallout 76 and Starfield, and its upcoming projects such as The Elder Scrolls 6.
In a recent interview with YouTuber MrMattyPlays, Howard reflected on how Bethesda approached Skyrim and Fallout 4. Howard noted that although both games remained popular for years after their initial release, Bethesda’s official support was cut off sooner than it should have.
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Skyrim had three major expansions, while Fallout 4 had six, but both were eventually left behind in terms of large-scale updates. Howard admits that Bethesda should have maintained a longer support cycle for these titles, a realization that is now influencing how the studio approaches its current and future projects.
This change in the studio’s focus can be seen most clearly with Fallout 76, a game that was designed with a long-term support plan in mind from the start. According to Howard, Bethesda entered development with the clear intention to support Fallout 76 for as long as possible.
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The long-term success of Fallout 76 is part of the studio’s commitment to serving its audience with regular content so players always have new reasons to return to the game. Howard wants it to be a game that players can come back to for years, even after they’ve put it down for a while.
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One of Howard’s regrets is that the large player communities of Skyrim and Fallout 4 never got the continuous stream of updates they deserved. As a result, Bethesda is rethinking how it manages its relationship with games and their communities over the long term.
Bethesda is not only looking to support its future games for longer but is also thinking about how to keep them relevant over time. In the interview, Howard explained that the studio is thinking about what it means to support a game for ten years, and how to make sure that the content stays relevant over that period.
Another factor driving this shift is the growing popularity of “games-as-a-service” models, where studios support their games with content updates for years. Bethesda is adopting this model to ensure that their upcoming titles not only draw players in but also keep them engaged over the long haul.
Howard and the Bethesda team are also keen to avoid rushing future releases. This is especially true for the Fallout franchise. Despite the increased popularity of Fallout, thanks in part to Amazon’s Fallout TV show, Howard has indicated that there is no rush to release the next major entry in the series.
This long-term vision speaks to the increasing demands of players for ongoing content but also reflects a desire within Bethesda to create worlds that are truly living and breathing, years after launch.
What do you think of Bethesda’s current philosophy for post-launch game support? Let us know in the comments!
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