Todd Howard Announces Opening of New Bethesda Dallas Studio

QuakeCon, the annual event organised by Bethesda, is currently taking place in Texas. Among the announcements so far from the company is the news that Bethesda is opening a new studio; Bethesda Game Studios Dallas. The studio, previously known as Escalation Studios, is the second Bethesda studio to open this year.

New Bethesda Studio: Bethesda Game Studios Dallas

The announcement came from Todd Howard during the QuakeCon 2018 Keynote speech. Escalation Studios began in 2007, and became a property of ZeniMax in 2016. It has worked alongside both Bethesda and Id Software for some time already; Escalation assisted with Doom, Rage, and Fallout VR, as well as the Nintendo Switch port of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. An official statement announcing the re-branding of Escalation Studios was published on Bethesda’s website shortly after the keynote.

The New Bethesda Studio in Dallas is Already Assisting with Fallout 76

“We’ve been working with Tom, Marc, and the team at Escalation for a long time,” stated Todd Howard; “They’ve already delivered amazing games with us, and we knew we could do even bigger things together. It’s an incredible team in Dallas and they’re already contributing to key parts of Fallout 76 and Starfield.”

Marc Tardif, co-founder of Escalation Studios, expressed his excitement at joining Bethesda as an official branch of the company; “We were honored to join the ZeniMax family in 2016, and the team is humbled to now join Bethesda Game Studios. We’re thrilled to share in the studio’s passion and commitment to bringing new and ambitious experiences to some of the industry’s most iconic franchises.”

The Dallas Studio’s Role With Bethesda

It’s unknown what areas of Fallout 76 and Starfield that the new studio has been assisting with. It is the second new Bethesda studio assisting with Fallout 76, however. Bethesda Game Studios Austin; formerly Battlecry Studios, became a branch of Bethesda Game Studios earlier this year. In that case, the studio’s expertise with online multiplayer titles was a key reason for bringing them directly into the fold. Bethesda Game Studios needed that expertise to rewrite code for Fallout 76 and other tasks related to online multiplayer. Bethesda has been expanding its studios significantly in recent years; with Starfield already in development, it’s no surprise. There are often years separating the studio’s releases. Indeed, it’s been almost a decade since the release of Skyrim. This could be part of a push to shorten the studio’s length development cycles.

Bethesda Game Studios Dallas Has Already Helped With Doom, Rage, and Fallout VR

The studio has Fallout 76 launching in November. After that, Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI will launch in the coming few years. There is growing competition in the RPG market from companies like Santa Monica Studios and CD Projekt Red, among others. Shortening their development cycles could help Bethesda compete in the long term. It would certainly be a move which fans are likely to appreciate; there’s no shortage of fans frustrated with Bethesda’s slow progress on the next Elder Scrolls game, for example. Bethesda is not unaware of this, either. The studio’s tongue-in-cheek Skyrim trailer at E3 makes that very clear. For now, fans will have to wait and see what the Dallas re-branding means for the future of Bethesda.