Bethesda is looking to create a new game engine, according to Todd Howard. He says the engine overhaul they did is “probably the largest we’ve ever had.”
In an interview, Bethesda director Todd Howard notes they are building a new game engine.
Their upcoming engine will power their upcoming games, including Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI. He teased the significant update for the future of the studio.
New Bethesda engine will be “largest-ever”
Bethesda Studios is famous for its creation of high-powered in-house engines. Engines like Gamebryo and Creation Engine were superbly powerful for their era.
So far, the studio is taking their sweet time with a new core to power their next-gen titles.
During a recent event, Howard teased that the studio is putting massive investments behind their engine team. He claims more people are working on the engine “by a factor of five.”
The new engine will be a hybrid of their old codebase and their new one. It will retain areas of their engine that people loved and overhaul parts that create bugs. It will also change how the studio approaches open-worlds for Bethesda.
“From rendering to animation to pathing to procedural generation… I don’t want to say everything, but it’s a significant overhaul,” noted Howard. “It’s taken us longer than we would have liked, but it’s going to power everything we’re doing with Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6. When people see the results, they’ll hopefully be as happy as we are with what’s on the screen and also how we can go about making our games.”
Howard will announce games close to release
Todd Howard and Bethesda are taking their sweet time with their next games. They understand that the fanbase wants the next iteration of their classics as soon as possible. Even then, Howard is optimistic about their timeline.
“You just don’t want to string them along too long. You get kind of fatigued,” Howard said. “You have to balance that fatigue of wanting something versus that consumer excitement. Also it takes time, to be frank.
“Preparing trailers, demos, and assets take time away from development. I remember games we’ve done where you’re doing that for multiple years, and it’s like you have to top yourself. You have to top your previous demo. I’d rather spend all that time focusing on the game and prepare one big demo.”
Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield received their announcements in 2018. So far, Todd Howard is looking to give out an announcement a few months before release.
Until then, players need to have faith that Bethesda knows what it’s doing.
Featured image courtesy of Develop: Brighton Conference/Youtube Screenshot