Bethesda Gets the Hot Cash Injection
$300 million to fund development of... MMOs? Plus, Shivering Isles PS3 and a Fallout blog update.
Published: October 25, 2007
Yeah, we'll admit it; we slacked off a little bit on updating you guys with some of the biggest news coming out of our friends over at Bethesda Softworks. The short version is that all that talk a while back about the dev/pub mulling a Shivering Isles solo release has finally come to a head. Apparently the expansion for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will not be distributed as a PlayStation Network download (at least not right now) and instead will be released as stand-alone Blu-ray release on November 20th. Of course if you pick up the Game of the Year Edition you'll get SI plus the Knights of the Nine expansion that shipped with the original PS3 Oblivion release.
Slightly less confusing is the news that Bethesda's official site for the absolutely killer looking Fallout 3 has been updated with German, French, Italian and Spanish languages. And their Design-A-Perk contest for building your own special ability for Fallout 3 is just about finished up. Head on over to the official site for all the deets.
The final chunk of Bethesda news comes from their parent company, ZeniMax Media, who managed to pull down a whopping $300 million in funding from Providence Equity Partners to help boost resources for development of existing stuff like Fallout. What's interesting is that Bethesda openly admits to using the cash to also fun massively multiplayer online games. Given the potential for an Elder Scrolls MMO, this isn't entirely surprising, but those following Fallout's progress will know Bethsoft bought the license from Interplay a while back, while Interplay bought the rights to a Fallout MMO on the grounds that the ailing developer will eventually give up their own rights should they not start by... early 2009.
"We believe that Providence will be an ideal partner for us as we build our businesses worldwide in the years ahead. Providence shares our strategic vision for the Company and is excited by the opportunity to help us move into a position of leadership in this industry," grinned ZeniMax founder Robert A. Altman.
"We are pleased to partner with one of the best managed companies in the videogame industry," squealed Michael Dominguez, a Managing Director of Providence. "ZeniMax Media has an outstanding series of proven interactive entertainment content and a burgeoning position in the rapidly growing global video game market. We look forward to working with Robert to build value at ZeniMax Media over the long-term."
It's certainly possible that Bethesda is working on something else, but given that they were already planning on doing something in the vein of an MMO with Fallout from the outset, it seems increasingly likely that they're just charging ahead with the initial R&D on the project in the event that Interplay, who is in rather dire financial straits anyway, can't get the ball rolling on their version of it. Given that the Black Isle Studios subset of Interplay, the folks responsible for some of the best PC role-playing games ever made, is no more (core members have spun off into a handful of their own studios and are firmly entrenched at this point), we're kinda hoping Bethesda gets the go-ahead.
Slightly less confusing is the news that Bethesda's official site for the absolutely killer looking Fallout 3 has been updated with German, French, Italian and Spanish languages. And their Design-A-Perk contest for building your own special ability for Fallout 3 is just about finished up. Head on over to the official site for all the deets.
The final chunk of Bethesda news comes from their parent company, ZeniMax Media, who managed to pull down a whopping $300 million in funding from Providence Equity Partners to help boost resources for development of existing stuff like Fallout. What's interesting is that Bethesda openly admits to using the cash to also fun massively multiplayer online games. Given the potential for an Elder Scrolls MMO, this isn't entirely surprising, but those following Fallout's progress will know Bethsoft bought the license from Interplay a while back, while Interplay bought the rights to a Fallout MMO on the grounds that the ailing developer will eventually give up their own rights should they not start by... early 2009.
"We believe that Providence will be an ideal partner for us as we build our businesses worldwide in the years ahead. Providence shares our strategic vision for the Company and is excited by the opportunity to help us move into a position of leadership in this industry," grinned ZeniMax founder Robert A. Altman.
"We are pleased to partner with one of the best managed companies in the videogame industry," squealed Michael Dominguez, a Managing Director of Providence. "ZeniMax Media has an outstanding series of proven interactive entertainment content and a burgeoning position in the rapidly growing global video game market. We look forward to working with Robert to build value at ZeniMax Media over the long-term."
It's certainly possible that Bethesda is working on something else, but given that they were already planning on doing something in the vein of an MMO with Fallout from the outset, it seems increasingly likely that they're just charging ahead with the initial R&D on the project in the event that Interplay, who is in rather dire financial straits anyway, can't get the ball rolling on their version of it. Given that the Black Isle Studios subset of Interplay, the folks responsible for some of the best PC role-playing games ever made, is no more (core members have spun off into a handful of their own studios and are firmly entrenched at this point), we're kinda hoping Bethesda gets the go-ahead.
