Bethesda General Discussion Thread

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IGN Unfiltered gets the man himself:



https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/02/bethesda-knew-fallout-76-would-have-bumps-a-ign-unfiltered

BETHESDA KNEW FALLOUT 76 'WOULD HAVE BUMPS' – IGN UNFILTERED

The launch of Fallout 76 was, to put it mildly, a bumpy one. IGN gave it a 5 out of 10, calling its rich world “wasted on a mess of bugs, conflicting ideas, and monotony.” It also earned a spot on our top 10 worst games of 2018 list. Much of the criticism stemmed not only from a rocky launch and massively broken game content, but also poorly handled PR snafus, like when Bethesda shipped bags that looked significantly cheaper than the ones promised in the $200 special edition. Yikes.

On this week’s episode of IGN Unfiltered, Bethesda’s own director Todd Howard sat down with host Ryan McCaffrey, saying that Bethesda saw a lot of these woes coming as the game neared its release date.

“That was a very difficult development on that game to get it where it was,” Howard told IGN. “We were ready for...a lot of those difficulties that ended up on the screen. We knew, hey look, this is not the type of game that people are used to from us and we're going to get some criticism on it. A lot of that is very well-deserved criticism.”

Howard also shared his thoughts on Fallout 76’s near future, hopes for improving the game and increasing Bethesda’s ability to listen to community input, and what lessons Bethesda learned from the troubled launch.

You can hear all that in the clip at the top of the page, and the full episode debuts on Tuesday, June 4 here on IGN and your favorite podcast platforms. Howard sat down to not only talk Fallout 76, but also his early history as a budding game developer, games industry crunch, and the infamous horse armor DLC, among many other topics.

 

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https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/0...or-next-gen-says-todd-howard-a-ign-unfiltered

SONY, MICROSOFT AREN'T 'SCREWING UP AT THE STARTING LINE' FOR NEXT-GEN, SAYS TODD HOWARD – IGN UNFILTERED

Every generation of consoles and PC gaming has its high points and its incredibly low points. Sometimes you launch a console for $600, and other times you force players to maintain an always-online connection. Bethesda director Todd Howard is one of the lucky industry leaders who often gets an early look at the hardware that will determine the capabilities of the next generation, and on this month’s IGN Unfiltered, he has some positive, but very select words about what he’s seen on the horizon from major industry figures.

“They’re doing the right things,” Howard told IGN. “The things everybody is doing, in my mind, no one is screwing up at the starting line, which some people have done before.”

Howard added that he believes the advancements made by this upcoming generation of console hardware will help the kinds of games that Bethesda builds (typically expansive RPGs) "tremendously," specifically referencing Sony's demonstrations of rapidly decreased load times on the next PlayStation console. Howard also said he looks forward to alternate business models for game developers, publishers, and platforms continuing to grow.

"Gaming is finally reaching the point that linear entertainment is," Howard said. "Movies, television, all that, where you're going to have games that are big tentpoles that people can buy for $60. That's kind of like going to the theater. You're going to have games you can play on a subscription service, you're going to have ones you can download on your phone, you're going to have ones you can play and they're ad-supported. I think that's really healthy for the industry; obviously the players who want to consume it, but [also] the developers who say 'I just want to make an adventure game for this budget.' There's an audience for that. My worry before was hey, will all of that go away?"

You can hear more on that in the clip at the top of the page, or you can watch or listen to the entire episode of Unfiltered tomorrow, where host Ryan McCaffrey chats with Howard about his early history working with Bethesda and Elder Scrolls, the troubling trend of crunch in the games industry, and how the infamous horse armor from The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion came to be.

 

[Owl]

 

[The Wall]

Grand Champion of Decline gets interviewed and his DLC argonian leather boots shined with tongue of IGN Adoring Fan. Rest of interview I guess is 18+ adult content and requests parental control password for all of you little Bethesda boys and girls. Ask uncle Pete to sell you one

Todd lie #697 in interview: horse armor increases your horse stats. Lol no, it doesn't to this very day. Horse armor does not armor your horse in Oblivion. Easily checkable in Creation Kit. It was first ever skin sold, waaaay before MOBAs. Toddy has been selling you lies all these years and you bought horse skin every 1st of April for double price to show them how big horses you are. Bravo humans, bravo gaming community! His finance diploma was well put to use

And to think I used to admire this jester as a kid...

 

[DalekFlay]

Jesus how big a deal is $2 to you that you're still bitching about horse armor 13 years later?

 

[The Wall]

Jesus how big a deal is $2 to you that you're still bitching about horse armor 13 years later?

It was birth of a concept, concept into which masses on industry wide scale have been completely indoctrinated and bought. Few ugly meshes from aborted Barbie Horse Adventure game for 3 bucks, during sale period on April the 1st double the amount, triple the units sold *honk*

LES TEN YEARS LATER....

Ultimate Money for Nothing

 

[vortex]

My impression is Starfield will be out in 2021.
Todd said they had worked on in for 3.5yrs.
2021 would fill that 5yrs-ish mark BTHS releases games.


TESVI is going to be huge.

 

[hpstg]

The photogrammetry on TES VI looked great.

If only it had competent writing and good game design.

 

[Yosharian]

TESVI is going to be hugely disappointing.

 

[DalekFlay]

It was birth of a concept, concept into which masses on industry wide scale have been completely indoctrinated and bought. Few ugly meshes from aborted Barbie Horse Adventure game for 3 bucks, during sale period on April the 1st double the amount, triple the units sold *honk*

I mean horse armor was stupid as hell, but cosmetics don't really bother me for existing because I can just ignore them. If idiots want to pay developers for a purple gun or a shiny horse then fleece the fuck out of them for all I care. Same for a little house, or whatever else Oblivion threw at plebs. It's very different from "oh you ran out of power for the day, pay up" or "grinding to the next level will take 5 hours, or you could pay a dollar." If you don't want to pay for dumb mods and cosmetics just... don't. It's only a problem if the game feels like it's missing something on purpose to sell you later, and Bethesda games certainly don't IMO.

 

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https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/0...bethesda-and-across-industry-a-ign-unfiltered

TODD HOWARD REFLECTS ON CRUNCH AT BETHESDA AND ACROSS INDUSTRY – IGN UNFILTERED

According to numerous reports, crunch (the practice of overworking employees to reach project deadlines, often to the detriment of an employee’s health) is a massively pervasive issue in the video game industry. Accusations allege that studios like Mortal Kombat’s NetherRealm, Fortnite’s Epic Games, and Grand Theft Auto’s Rockstar (among many others) all practice at least some amount of crunch, leading to increased calls for unionization across the industry. It’s become an issue that even the biggest of executives are forced to acknowledge, and on this month’s episode of IGN Unfiltered, Bethesda director Todd Howard shared his thoughts on the relationship between crunch and the studio that’s brought us The Elder Scrolls and modern Fallout.

“A lot of people here have [made games] for a long time,” Howard told IGN. “We've been through every type of crunch you can imagine. And long ago, some ones that were very, very difficult for a lot of us personally, with your time, and your health and things like that. We have gotten much, much better at it. Now we're at the point where we can really manage it, and we have enough people to move them between it. I think it's why people stay here.”

“The one thing I'll say is that I think every game deserves some amount at the very end,” Howard continued. “Some amount that is healthy, to leave it all on the field, because it's important to us, it's important to our fans. You've just got to make sure that is communicated really well.”

It’s worth noting that in a late 2018 piece from GameSpot, Bethesda senior vice president of marketing and communications Pete Hines said that, while he does not work day to day in the same offices as Bethesda’s developers, and while crunch has happened at Bethesda, he believes the company promotes a healthy work/life balance. IGN has not spoken with other employees at Bethesda to corroborate Howard's or Hines' statements.

You can hear more of Howard’s thoughts about the issues of crunch, as well as the ongoing streak of mass layoffs in the games industry, in the clip above. You can also watch the full episode of IGN Unfiltered to hear Howard share his early history as a budding game developer, the tumultuous launch of Fallout 76, and what he really thinks about The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion’s horse armor in hindsight.

 

[Metro]

I dunno how the fuck Bethesda overworks their staff when they produce sloppy open worlds with sparse content. Compare the settlements in Fallout 4 to the ones created by "typical modders."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLNljpYE8jA

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm tired of hearing about "crunch" in the video game industry. You know what every other industry calls that? Working.
"oh no we can't goof off and play games and do other dumb shit we have to focus on the product "
Unless there is someone holding a gun to your head and forcing you to work there you should find a different job.

 

[Yosharian]

I'm tired of hearing about "crunch" in the video game industry. You know what every other industry calls that? Working.
"oh no we can't goof off and play games and do other dumb shit we have to focus on the product "
Unless there is someone holding a gun to your head and forcing you to work there you should find a different job.

Uhhhh

I don't think that's what criticisers of crunch are saying

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/0...iv-oblivions-horse-armor-dlc-a-ign-unfiltered

BETHESDA'S TODD HOWARD DOESN'T REGRET ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION'S HORSE ARMOR DLC – IGN UNFILTERED

When horse armor first debuted in Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, it was priced at $2.50, and it effectively went on to define bad DLC in an age when battle passes didn’t exist yet. To this day, it’s a frequently repeated joke when some other company debuts some lackluster content. However, Bethesda director Todd Howard guested on this month’s episode of IGN Unfiltered, and he says he doesn’t regret horse armor one bit.

“Horse armor is not bad,” Howard told IGN. “I think horse armor is fine. The price point at the time was the issue. Xbox, they were doing themes. Ringtones were big at the time. Ringtones were just crushing it for Nokia or whoever….We felt, 'Well it's probably worth this [amount.'] I won't say who at Microsoft, but they said, 'Well that's less than we sell a theme for. A wallpaper is more than that. You should charge this [amount]. You can always lower it.’ We're like...OK."

You can hear more about how Howard and Bethesda handled the advent of DLC with horse armor in the clip at the top of the page or the full episode. Sitting down with Unfiltered host Ryan McCaffrey, Howard shared stories from his earliest days as a developer, what it was like weathering the storm of Fallout 76’s reception, and his thoughts on industry issues like crunch and next-gen hardware.

 

[DalekFlay]

Even at like 50 cents it would be wildly out of balance with the full game content and price.

 

[Makabb]

Elder Scrolls 6 is designed 'for people to play for 10 years at least' says Todd Howard

 

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[Xeon]

I thought Id studio will be spelled[?] like ID or something but its just called Ed.

 

[Goral]

Elon Musk and Todd Howard are together, you heard it here first:

 

[Space Satan]

Does This Look Like The Face of Mercy?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Heh the first thing that came to my mind when I saw that image was; Television announcer "We now return to the Three Stooges."

 

[Yosharian]

 

[Wunderbar]