Elder Scrolls, Fallout Dev Bethesda Opens A New Studio

Bethesda Game Studios is expanding. The developer responsible for the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series announced today that it's added a new studio in Texas to its roster, though it isn't saying just yet what it will be working on.

In a press release, Bethesda said it "has expanded development capacity for future titles by welcoming BattleCry Studios in Austin, Texas, as part of Bethesda Game Studios." The company is a relatively new studio owned by Bethesda parent company ZeniMax; it was originally working on a game called BattleCry before moving on to work on Doom, another ZeniMax game.

"As the vision, scale, and ambitions for our games continue to grow, so does Bethesda Game Studios," said Bethesda executive producer and game director Todd Howard. "We've had the pleasure to know the talented developers at BattleCry, and knew we could do great things together."

This new Austin location for Bethesda will be headed by Doug Mellencamp, who will serve as studio director. He previously was the GM and technical director of BattleCry Studios. He too shared a statement, saying, "We're excited to join Bethesda Game Studios and look forward to working together on some of the industry's most exciting new games. Austin's incredible game development scene and talent will also allow us to push our games further than fans have imagined."

There are numerous job listings outlined on Bethesda's website, including a small handful at the Austin studio. However, they don't provide any insight into what kind of projects to expect. In 2016, Howard teased three "big and crazy" projects from Bethesda, and last year, we heard why the company isn't in a rush to make Elder Scrolls VI. We've still yet to hear anything about that game coming, though given that Bethesda doesn't like to announce things far in advance, that doesn't mean much.

Bethesda Game Studios' primary location is in Maryland, though in December 2015, it opened a second studio in Montreal. At the time, it said the move was in order to "expand its development capabilities in console, PC, and mobile gaming." We've yet to see any original output from the studio, as the past few years have only been home to Skyrim ports and VR adaptations of both Skyrim and Fallout 4.