History Creator / Bethesda

** They have also gone on to hire some of the more talented {{game mod}}ders as developers for later games in the series.
* RunningGag: [[SweetTooth Sweet rolls]], which originally started out in ''The Elder Scrolls'' and has since spread to ''Fallout.''

On September 21, 2020, it was announced that [=ZeniMax=] Media was to be acquired by Microsoft, adding it and its subsidiaries under the Creator/XboxGameStudios banner. The acquisition was completed on March 9, 2021, after US and EU approval. Bethesda's publishing duties were transferred over to Xbox, though the 'Bethesda Softworks' name is still used for games developed by its former subsidiaries.

In 2004, the company also acquired the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' franchise from Creator/InterplayEntertainment, and revamped it into a 3D first-person RPG akin to ''The Elder Scrolls'' with ''VideoGame/Fallout3''. Since then, Bethesda has grown into a titan of western gaming [[note]]Indeed, Bethesda Game Studios now has ''three'' different studio teams - The original and main studio in Rockville, MD, a second studio opened in Montreal, Quebec, and [=BattleCry=] Studios in Austin, TX after Zenimax bought them out[[/note]], although its tendency to completely rebuild its games from the ground up with each sequel (which usually means axing old features in favor of new ones) proved to be divisive at times.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' franchise (acquired from Creator/InterplayEntertainment):

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' franchise (acquired from Creator/InterplayEntertainment):

* CrapsackWorld: [[Franchise/TheElderScrolls Tamriel]] and [[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} the North American Wasteland]] are ''not'' [[RunningGag okay places to live]]. This serves Bethesda's style of RPG very well, as it provides players with plenty of conflicts and crises to meddle in (for [[VideoGameCaringPotential better]] or for [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential worse]]).

* ''VideoGame/{{Starfield}}'' (TBA -- Planned 2023)

* ObviousBeta: They make wondrous games... that are also infamous for their many technical issues, especially upon release. ''Daggerfall'' was so infamously buggy that it was ''impossible to complete the main quest'' when released (this was later patched). They ''have'' been getting better about this over time... but there are still debacle cases like ''Fallout 76''.

* ObviousBeta: They make wondrous games...that are also infamous for their many technical issues, especially upon release. ''Daggerfall'' was so infamously buggy that it was ''impossible to complete the main quest'' when released (this was later patched). They ''had'' been getting better about this over time...then the ''Fallout 76'' debacle happened and set the company's reputation ''well'' back in this regard.

* WelcomeToCorneria: While their games don't necessarily suffer from ''more'' of this, it's arguably more noticeable due to the huge scale they always shoot for in their games. Get used to their approach towards [=NPCs=], and it's all the more jarring once you hear everything they have to say.

[https://bethesda.net/ Bethesda Softworks LLC] is a video game development and publishing company that was founded in 1985 by Christopher Weaver in Bethesda, Maryland.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bethesda_game_studios.png]]

Bethesda Softworks LLC was founded in 1985 by Christopher Weaver in Bethesda, Maryland.

Bethesda Game Studios was founded in 1985 by Christopher Weaver in Bethesda, Maryland, originally as Bethesda Softworks.

On September 21, 2020, it was announced that [=ZeniMax=] Media was to be acquired by Microsoft, adding it and its subsidiaries under the Creator/XboxGameStudios banner. The acquisition was completed on March 9, 2021, after US and EU approval. The head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has stated that some of Bethesda's future games will be exclusive to Xbox and PC, though only time will tell what these games could be.

* ''VideoGame/GhostwireTokyo''

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters:
** Given the sheer scale of the games they create, creating enough characters to fill them out naturally leads to this. Even the ''Fallout'' games, which take place in a sparsely populated post-apocalyptic wasteland, usually require multiple character sub-pages to list them all out.
** From a technical perspective, modern Bethesda games take this trope to the extreme in a way no other developer does. Instead of filling their world with [[NominalImportance non-character]] [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCS]] that act as window dressing to make the world seem bustling and alive, Bethesda chooses to use a smaller number of more "intelligent" characters that all have at least one line of dialogue, a bed to sleep in, and a schedule they adhere to. While every NPC being an individual is pretty cool and quite the ambitious concept, this approach [[ThrivingGhostTown does have its own drawbacks.]]