#bethesda

[mojavediscodancer]

This is not exclusively about Fallout, but it's a great place to spark the discussion. No matter if you're excited or not for the incoming Fallout projects, whether it's the new Fallout game or the remakes for Fallout 3 and New Vegas, we shouldn't forget that we're receiving these news now as a smokescreen to distract the public from the layoffs at Microsoft.

Source.

Unfortunately, this is nothing new in the industry. A few days ago we received this communication from ZA/UM:

Source.

ZA/UM, yes, the same company that stole the company and intellectual property of its original developers and creators and now they're "sharing the difficult news" with the next blow to its workers.

People need to always keep in mind that a company doesn't equal the workers nor the art. They're the ones who need the workers, not the other way around, but it's easy to forget the power of collective action. Time and time again we see it in the videogame industry, how companies will shamelessly subtract value from the workers and then dispose of them. Despite the all time hype the Fallout franchise is experiencing Microsoft still has no issues in getting rid of its workers. It has happened before with other companies, like Ubisoft announcing layoffs across multiple studios, and announcing even more in Ubisoft Barcelona even after the record sales of Assassin's Creed Resynced.

If you love videogames, please, stand at least in solidarity with the people who make them. In this landscape of corporate greed, AI and a constant erosion of worker's rights we need more than ever to stand together. The best way to protest is to unionize and stand in solidarity, being together and stand shoulder to shoulder with the people who make the art and videogames we love so much.

[thousandtombs]

Considering microshit absolutely gutted Bethesda, the new fallout games are definitely going to be largely vibe coded trash not worth playing right?

Like they admitted to vibe coding fucking windows updates there's no way they care enough about games to actually make anything quality

[elderscrollsconceptart]

Apparently there’s been some protests by Bethesda, Zenimax, and Union workers across North America to protest the mass layoffs

Here’s an article: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/07/hundreds-rally-at-bethesda-hq-to-protest-xbox-layoffs-and-ars-was-there/

Let’s see if it does anything

Thank you for sharing the article. I am hopeful these protests will at least get more Bethesda/Zenimax employees to get involved in whatever unions they have access to.

The other day when these protests were happening I was a bit torn because small scale protests dont usually have any effect, especially against mega-corps like Microsoft so it felt like screaming into the wind...

But if these protests can at least *discourage* Microsoft from future/imminent layoffs, its a very good thing for remaining Bethesda/Zenimax employees + those at other studios that suffered layoffs.

The games industry baaadly needs stronger unions. Unions in general need more active member involvement as well because the unions (if theyre strong enough) could be the only thing that ends up preventing mass layoffs like this in the future

[elderscrollsconceptart]

yeah... don't get me wrong, I'm excited for new stuff, but... setting expectations like this has never been good for Bethesda and I fear for the future. it feels like an unsettling omen for them to be this transparent. I'm surprised they're still doing Starfield stuff - I was under the impression based on everything I saw that they'd be cutting back on it. I guess that gives me hope that they're still trying to do what they want to do, but... idk. Scary times for video games and video game developers.

>seems like an unsettling omen for them to be so transparent

lol as funny as that sentence sounds in isolation, I completely agree with you.

I was hopeful for more Starfield content as well but I dont like thinking how literally everything Bethesda is making now will be under threat of more layoffs/firings from Microsoft if they underperform.

And yeah the *most optimistic* read I can take from this is that at least Bethesda is still getting to make *their* games. I know Obsidian and other smaller sister studios to Bethesda are well..they're in a really bad spot rn..

God willing, I hope all these upcoming games from Bethesda/Zenimax/Obsidian can at least be successful so all their studios dont get demoted to "Call of Duty Support Studios" or outright shuttered. Time will only tell. I have faith in Bethesda, I really do. We'll see if Microsoft will let them at least retain their dignity or not and get back to making games they want they want to.

[bi-astolfo]

Bethesda said in a post that Fallout 5 has officially begun preproduction. They also confirmed that they are working with Obsidian on a new fallout project. Also confirmed a Fallout 3 and New Vegas remaster is on the way. Fallout 76 is also getting a big new update next year centered around Raven Rock, which will serve as a prequel story to Fo3.

Fallout day 2027, which will also be the game’s 30th anniversary, will be held in Washington, D.C. and will be the likely date that they drop the Fo3 remaster.

TES 6 and Fo5 will both be in Creation Engine 3, but Obsidian’s game could be in Unreal Engine as that’s what they’re used to using.

Starfield is also confirmed to be getting more content. Nice to see that they haven’t abandoned the game. There aren’t a ton of players, only 17 million as of July, but they do play the game a ton.

They’ve also paid out over $10 in royalties to mod authors who have made paid mods for their games. That’s the amount paid after Bethesda takes their cut. The paid mod scene is doing pretty well, and I’m personally glad that it’s allowed people who put in all this work for a hobby to now be able to pivot and follow their dreams of game development.

Honestly I’m really excited for all the lore coming for the Enclave in both the next season of the tv show and the 76 update.

[gaykarstaagforever]

"Bethesda announces upcoming remasters of Fallout 3 and New Vegas."

I guess we finally ran out of things to put Skyrim on.

Plus with the layoffs, there are like 18 people left down there, and one of them has to carry around the apple crate Todd Howard stands on if there are any photographers.

It's amazing how few people you need to upscale textures to 4K nowadays! Because people work so FAST! You just tell them what you want 8 to 15 times, BAM! Oblivion is remastered!

...I mean it looks like shit and loses all its charm and this utterly shits on the artists who made the orginal. But you gotta sell something 4th quarter of this year, and 18 people (17 people) can't make a new $300 million AAA! And we only do those! Because $1 million games don't make $1 billion!

...I mean sometimes they kind of do. But no Microsoft-owned studio is wasting time on a low-tier bet like that! Mostly because you need artistic flexibility and a creative vision to produce something like that, and Microsoft abandoned that around the time of Age of Empires II, I think.

And if you don't make a billion-dollar game...oh man! People get laid off!

...EVEN MORE people get laid off!

So my point is, don't expect anything from Bethesda besides reskins of 15 yr old games for the next...well. Until everyone gets laid off, I assume.

Can't wait for the 2040 15K remaster of Todd Howard's Starfield, for SpaceX's neural implant! It shocks you every 20 minutes unless you send Microsoft $20. Which by then will be $550. And you have to use BarronCoin, ever since Kalshi bought all the banks and won't trade in dollars.

Global investors turned on it after President Clavicular lost that war against Puerto Rico (yes he didn't know it was already a territory and when they told him he thought they were just fucking with him).

[balketh]

Well-Earned Todd Howard Humiliation Ritual

They didn't just put a gun to Todd Howard's head. They're full-on having him do a metaphorical hostage read with Jason Schreier. My god. What a day. Look at them being forced to reveal Fallout 5 AND the Fallout 3/NV remasters, because of the widespread joy at the rumours (now confirmed!) that Obsidian was finally tapped to make a real Fallout game. Absolutely shamed, Bethesda are, that they had to do this.

The internet doesn't always get it right, but fuck me, we've been getting it right for the last 15 years on this one. Make the fucking game you said you were making almost a decade ago. Make it like the older ones, not the newer ones. Make it weird and complicated. This might be your last chance.

Bethesda's needed to get its shit together for years. We've been calling the wheels on the cart getting wobbly the more they dumbed down the Elder Scrolls, from Morrowind to Skyrim, despite sales, but nobody believed us because Skyrim sold gangbusters.

Starfield was the first wheel actually coming off - sales were big up front, but there's less than zero cultural staying power, and that's what Bethesda needed, now, since the expectation was set from Skyrim. One need only compare steamdb numbers of Starfield to Skyrim (and don't fucking say consoles - PC always has and always will be the primary place for TES games because of mods you can't get on consoles.)

56.7% review score and an average of 4.5-5k players at the three year mark, vs Skyrim's 91% review score, and 41k average players at the fifteen year mark. And, mind you? Skyrim's average playercount has steadily increased over the last 10 years. Average of 15-20k players circa 2018. 41k now, and rising. Show me any other 15 year old singleplayer game that has done that. Sure as fuck isn't Starfield.

And then they just... Sat with their thumbs up their ass, praying Fallout 76 would be The Next Big Thing. And it fucking wasn't. Well beyond a full dev cycle timeframe for TES VI. Larian pushed out BG3 in 75% of the time that TES VI has already taken, and I guaran-fucking-tee you TES VI won't be a quarter multi-faceted, robust, and complex as BG3.

Todd Howard has, at this point, completely lost the ability to direct Bethesda to make a great game. The writing has not improved (see: Starfield, et al; I fully blame Emil Pagliarulo and believe that Mr-I-Dont-Use-Design-Documents should be part of the cut jobs). The complexity and mechanical depth of the games has not improved. The understanding of what priorities need to be focused on has not improved (see: the terrible signing off of Oblivion "Remastered", a somehow buggier release of a 20 year old game that just had a new graphics engine and model/texture/shader set stapled to it. Zero confidence for Fallout 3/NV remasters, even less stable.)

The only, only saving grace of TES VI coming out is that, being on Creation Engine 3, it'll be modded to hell and back. That's what will make it and save it.

But even then, Starfield's mod community atrophied on the vine so badly, because the game itself wasn't worth the time. I worry, then, for TES VI.

My hope here, my ONLY hope, is that much like Morrowind being made under desperation of a closing company, a hail mary made by doing it all, that TES VI is pushed to be the most wild and risk taking and out there game it can be because of the dire straits Bethesda find themselves in now.

[wyrdkhaosmedia]

BIG Bethesda news today! Lots of stuff on the way!

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