author: Paul Wozniak
Todd Howard Can't Imagine Exclusivity of The Elder Scrolls 6
Gamesindustry.biz published an interview with Todd Howard, in which he talked about the future of the industry and the exclusivity of Bethesda's titles (on the example of The Elder Scrolls VI).
- In an interview for gamesindustry.biz, Todd Howard talked about the future of the gaming industry and the exclusivity of Bethesda's titles;
- According to the developer, the key to the upcoming generation will be availability of games, thanks to subscriptions (e.g. Game Pass) and "cloud gaming";
- Howard said that it's "hard to imagine" that games like TES VI will not appear on other stores than Microsoft's, but for the time being, it's too early to talk about specific actions in this area.
Today, gamesindustry.biz featured an extensive interview with the main executive producer and writer at Bethesda, Todd Howard. The developer talked about the future of the industry, cloud gaming and subscriptions, as well as the company's plans and possible exclusivity of its future games.
At the beginning of the conversation, Howard referred to the acquisition of ZeniMax Media Inc., the owners of Bethesda Softworks, by Microsoft. The dev expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the industry, as well as the developers themselves, welcomed this information warmly. He also added that he is pleased that both companies have been cooperating with each other for a long time and share similar values - they want to deliver the best titles to every player, no matter where they are or what device they use.
The developer has spoken positively about subscriptions such as Game Pass. According to him, it's a great opportunity not only for the gamers who get access to many great games at a good price but also for developers, who won't be "tied" to tangible sales results, which will enable them a little more freedom in developing their works. Additionally, thanks to subscriptions, they will increase their chances of someone reaching for their game.
"I'm extremely optimistic about what something like Game Pass brings, not just to people playing it but to creators being unbridled in terms of what they can create."
According to Howard, the upcoming generation of games is to be marked by titles easily accessible on various devices and in many places around the world. In addition to subscriptions, this is to be facilitated by the so-called "cloud gaming", which, for example, is to make playing easier for the gamers when they plan to play together with friends in the evening, but they will not want to worry about not a having a game on their hard drive (because it will be available through streaming).
"There's lots of flavors of it, and I think over the next five years [streaming is] going to become more and more popular, and after that maybe it's the main way people play."
As far as the exclusivity of Bethesda's future games is concerned, Howard admitted that even though its acquisition by Microsoft will result in their day one availability as part of the Xbox Game Pass subscription, it's "hard to imagine" that they won't appear on other devices, withThe Elder Scrolls VI serving as an example. He added, that the franchise has been somewhat "exclusive" to Microsoft for years, so it's hard to say exactly how it will look in the future.
The full interview with Howard can be found at this address. On Monday, November 2, the website will also publish a detailed record of the dev's planned speech at Develop: Brighton Digital 2020 conference.
