TheMisterManGuy on 21 July 2019
Bethesda's reputation has taken a hit recently. Fallout 76 was a disaster, and the series was already on decline under Bethesda. Skyrim has been ported to death, they attempted to monetize mods, even though the mods single handedly fix their often broken games, And many of their games are still running on that aging and dated Creation Engine. It's safe to say recent years haven't been too kind to Bethesda. At least, when you're talking about Bethesda Game Studios, the company's in-house development division. The actual publishing company, Bethesda Softworks on the other-hand, has actually been doing pretty well for itself.
Todd the Modd Howard and his group of fools may be spinning out of control, but Bethesda as a publisher has been maintaining a consistent track-record of quality. In fact I'd go as far as to say Bethesda puts out often some of the more unique AAA games in the Market. When BGS isn't doing them any favors, the company's 4 other subsidiaries and external co-productions are able to pick up the slack. Fallout New Vegas was farmed out to Obsidian (now owned by Microsoft) who did a better job with the series, than any of Bethesda's attempts at it. Doom 2016 not only brought the series back to relevance, but also proved that old-school FPS games were profitable in an era drowning in copy-paste CoD clones. Arkane Studios has also made a name for itself with Prey 2017 and the Dishonored series, and is currently working on a new IP Death Loop. Shinji Mikami's Tango Games put out some underrated Horror games this generation with The Evil Within 1 & 2, and its new game Ghostwire Tokyo. And Machine Games has been able to make some solid Wolfenstien reboots, despite the more modern game-play compared to Doom.
Is Bethesda perfect? Of course not, they've got their share of dumb BS like any gaming company out there. But I think Bethesda Game Studios is responsible for most of it. Really, the problem with BGS is the same problem with Game Freak's Pokemon team. There's some real talent at the studio, but they insist on using outdated technology, dumb things down with no rhyme or reason, and is so hell bent on living in the past. Something needs to change there, and I think it starts with firing Todd Howard, I think it's clear he's little more than dead weight at this point, using his ego and past accomplishments to make up for a lack of creativity and polish in his games.
But otherwise, Bethesda as a publisher though, isn't half bad. They put out consistently great games, and have some really talented studios under their belt. Even when BGS and Todd are making them look bad, they're still way better than EA or Activision, so that's at least something.
Todd the Modd Howard and his group of fools may be spinning out of control, but Bethesda as a publisher has been maintaining a consistent track-record of quality. In fact I'd go as far as to say Bethesda puts out often some of the more unique AAA games in the Market. When BGS isn't doing them any favors, the company's 4 other subsidiaries and external co-productions are able to pick up the slack. Fallout New Vegas was farmed out to Obsidian (now owned by Microsoft) who did a better job with the series, than any of Bethesda's attempts at it. Doom 2016 not only brought the series back to relevance, but also proved that old-school FPS games were profitable in an era drowning in copy-paste CoD clones. Arkane Studios has also made a name for itself with Prey 2017 and the Dishonored series, and is currently working on a new IP Death Loop. Shinji Mikami's Tango Games put out some underrated Horror games this generation with The Evil Within 1 & 2, and its new game Ghostwire Tokyo. And Machine Games has been able to make some solid Wolfenstien reboots, despite the more modern game-play compared to Doom.
Is Bethesda perfect? Of course not, they've got their share of dumb BS like any gaming company out there. But I think Bethesda Game Studios is responsible for most of it. Really, the problem with BGS is the same problem with Game Freak's Pokemon team. There's some real talent at the studio, but they insist on using outdated technology, dumb things down with no rhyme or reason, and is so hell bent on living in the past. Something needs to change there, and I think it starts with firing Todd Howard, I think it's clear he's little more than dead weight at this point, using his ego and past accomplishments to make up for a lack of creativity and polish in his games.
But otherwise, Bethesda as a publisher though, isn't half bad. They put out consistently great games, and have some really talented studios under their belt. Even when BGS and Todd are making them look bad, they're still way better than EA or Activision, so that's at least something.
