Punished Miku
Gold Member
- 2002 - The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- 2004 - IHRA Professional Drag Racing
- 2006 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- 2008 - Fallout 3
- 2011 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- 2015 - Fallout 4
- 2018 - Fallout 76
- TBA - Starfield
- TBA - The Elder Scrolls VI
As the gaming industry slowly moved on past this rude awakening and transfer of power, other game development studios quietly worked on their own open world engines in a desperate attempt to catch up to consumer demand. Open world as a genre was so impressive, that gamers routinely excused poor combat systems, glitchy and buggy games design, game crashes, poor loading times, and repetitive quest design - as long as it was open and the game world was huge.
With the Playstation 4's release, the entire balance of console gaming began to rapidly change. What was hinted at during the PS3 era, began to finally take shape. Developers that were skilled in art design, combat design, or action games began to push series that were also just as big as Bethesda Games. Gamers were still convinced that Bethesda was the king of open world game design, quietly waiting for Bethesda to show why they were still the king of the genre, while numerous other strong contenders emerged. Assassin's Creed games grew to gargantuan sizes, with not only huge continents, but fully explorable islands and sailing complimenting an action game. While all these games were releasing, Bethesda had little to show for it aside from the lackluster Fallout 4 in 2015.
- 2012 - Dragon's Dogma
- 2013 - Grand Theft Auto V
- 2015 - Metal Gear Solid V
- 2015 - Xenoblade X (4x the size of Fallout 4 with almost no loading)
- 2015 - Batman Arkham Knight
- 2015 - The Witcher 3
- 2016 - No Man's Sky
- 2016 - Final Fantasy XV
- 2017 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- 2017 - Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- 2017 - Horizon: Zero Dawn
- 2017 - Assassin's Creed: Origins
- 2018 - Red Dead Redemption 2
- 2019 - Death Stranding
- 2020 - Ghost of Tsushima
- 2020 - Microsoft Flight Simulator
- 2020 - Cyberpunk
More importantly, assuming they can remain competitive in the field of modern open world technology, can they compete against studios that have decades of experience with top tier action gameplay now being their direct competitors? Do you think Bethesda Game Studios will remain competitive as a top tier studio or will they be a mid-tier studio with a solid niche like Obsidian? Will they ever achieve the same highs of Skyrim?
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