The Future of Bethesda, "Just Single-Player" Is Still a Priority

In recent years, in large part due to so many microtransaction controversies, the community's knee jerk reaction to the world "online" is to revolt. This is especially true for franchises that aren't known for being online capable, making that new direction scary for some. Such was the case with Fallout 76. Despite incredibly tiny servers of 12-30 players, and a map that's 4 times the size of that seen in Fallout 4, many are still worried about the new "direction" and what that means for Bethesda's promise of "Save Single Player." Not to worry, it doesn't mean anything because single-player is still very much a priority to the publisher.

When speaking about why Bethesda chose to show The Elder Scrolls VI so early, despite it not coming out this generation, VP of Marketing Pete Hines mentioned that it was to help fans not "freak out" over the future of single-player games.

In a recent interview with FZ.se, Hines mentioned "[The announcement] also helps convince folks, like, look, this is not forever-more what we're doing. We are going to do a game that's just single-player next time around, and yes, we are going to get to Elder Scrolls 6. There's going to be a long time before we're ready to talk about what those are, because we want the time between when we start to talk about it and it comes out to not be two years long or three years long. But it just gives folks a better idea of where we're headed and understanding what the studio is working on and trying to do."

Some were calling it a publicity stunt, others were too stunned to care (me, hi), but Pete Hines assures fans that it was in the best intention to reveal the game so soon. That's also why it was a simple screenshot, a simple: We're committed, don't panic.

Hopefully this calms fan worries about Bethesda's view on games and what they have in store for us. Bethesda is one of the most beloved publishers in the world. Have a little faith! If it doesn't work out, we have a promise of stunning single-player games ahead for us in the future!