When the western developer/publisher giant Bethesda announced they would be holding their own press conference at E3 2015 it sent waves across the gaming community. Speculation began on the announcements and reveals to come June 14 in Hollywood. So, let’s do what we do best and speculate on the news to come !
As Good As Done
Soon my friend, soon.
Bethesda Game Studios itself is known for 2 mega popular franchises, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. The studio has been open on their process of development, alternating between the two franchises to keep things fresh and remain motivated. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (the latest release from the studio) hit the November 1, 2011. There’s has yet to be an official reveal, yet Fallout 4 making an appearance at the press conference is all but confirmed. With nearly 4 since Skyrim, the team has had plenty of time, hopefully meaning the game is closer to being finished than most would believe. Fallout 4 has garnered a level of hype akin to Half-Life 3, in that Bethesda doesn’t need over a year to demo the game and get the community’s feedback. Quite the contrary, a prolonged media exposure would only hurt Fallout 4. Giving more time and more details on the game would only give the community more to pick apart and find tiny flaws, this is the nature of our community. The Fallout franchise has enough support and hype it really only needs one reveal, some gameplay demo and Bethesda is good to go. Don’t be surprised if you’re playing Fallout before the year’s out.
The Sidekicks
Winner of best box art of 2014.
What many forget is Bethesda is also a publisher, they own multiple studios with impressive IPs. Some of the most refreshingly new titles to be released in the past few years were done under Bethesda’s watchful eye. Arkane Studio’s Dishonered reminded everyone of the first-person stealth genre and Tango Gameworks’ The Evil Within earned it’s mark in the ever growing horror genre with a strong commercial performance and critical success. Another recent franchise Bethesda took under their wing is the long-time FPS Wolfenstein. MachineGames’s efforts to bring the old-school shooter to a new audience didn’t go in vain, receiving critical success and incredible commercial success has surely warranted a sequel. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Doom 4. The long time developed game was announced in 2007 but hasn’t seen much progress since. When Bethesda took the reins to help ID Software with their troubled project many saw this as the saving grace from an otherwise doomed title, hopefully we get some news on the game’s development. These press conferences tend to last 90 mins or so, it would be naive to think they’re going to talk about Fallout 4 for all that time.
What To Expect
When Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft and EA hold their press conferences they talk about dozens of games. The standard format of announcing a bevy of titles and having a flagship game shown with some gameplay is tried and true. Expecting some Fallout 4 gameplay isn’t such a ludicrous idea when considering the game has been in development for almost 4 years. If we’re lucky we may even get a brand new IP from one Bethesda’s talented studios along with some plans for more Wolfenstein and Dishonered. Last year’s E3 was kind of a lull, here’s to hoping Bethesda will inject some hype into the trade show.