Hear me out, Bethesda hasn’t made a really successful game since Skyrim. their new overlords are more than happy to shuffle them around, and who’s to say Todd Howard won’t retire after TES6 is launched?
I’m seeing a lot of parallels to Bioware, with game after game not doing as hot as the previous ones, and XBOX being very trigger happy with axing studios that aren’t pulling their weight, similar to EA.
It’s possible TES6, if it releases, will be the make it or break it of the company.
No, Bioware was sold off by the founders to a private equity firm who eventually sold them off to EA, a company who even then was notorious for shutting game studios down arbitrarily. A sports game company that killed game companies for less, they were always an odd fit and the fact EA kept them for as long as they did was an anomaly.
Bethesda ownership wise and structurally speaking has remained the same from it’s peak till today. They have plenty of more flops to give and probably won’t care or learn from their mistakes like Bioware because of how unique Bioware’s situation was.
they are owned by XBOX tho, sure internally it’s the same but externally it needs to make them money, and even Arkane wasn’t safe from getting axed in spite of the good games.