Bethesda

Bethesda is an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1986 by Christopher Weaver in Bethesda, Maryland, and now based in Rockville, Maryland. Originally both a developer and publisher, the company restructured in 2001 when its internal development team was spun off into a separate entity called Bethesda Game Studios, leaving Bethesda Softworks to focus on publishing. In 1999 the company became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, and in March 2021 Microsoft acquired ZeniMax, bringing Bethesda into the Xbox family as part of Microsoft Gaming. Bethesda Game Studios is best known as the developer of two of the most influential open-world RPG series in gaming history: The Elder Scrolls, which began with Arena in 1994, and Fallout, the rights to which Bethesda acquired from Interplay in 2004.

Landmark releases under the Bethesda name include The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002), Oblivion (2006), and Skyrim (2011), as well as Fallout 3 (2008), Fallout 4 (2015), and Starfield (2023). As a publisher, Bethesda Softworks has also released titles from ZeniMax's wider family of studios, including id Software's Doom (2016), MachineGames' Wolfenstein series, Arkane Studios' Dishonored and Prey, and Tango Gameworks' Hi-Fi Rush. Bethesda Game Studios has around 450 employees and continues to develop the next entry in The Elder Scrolls series, The Elder Scrolls VI, which remains in early development.