Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American company that publishes video games. It is located in Rockville, Maryland. The company was started in 1986 by Christopher Weaver as part of Media Technology Limited. In 1999, it became owned by ZeniMax Media. For the first 15 years, Bethesda created and published its own video games. In 2001, it separated its internal game development team into a new company called Bethesda Game Studios. This allowed Bethesda Softworks to focus only on publishing games.

In March 2021, Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, which is Bethesda Softworks’ parent company. Microsoft stated that Bethesda Softworks would continue to operate independently. As part of Microsoft’s Gaming division, Bethesda Softworks still acts as the publisher for games made by the different studios under ZeniMax Media.

History

Christopher Weaver worked as a technology expert and communications engineer in the television and cable industries before founding Bethesda Softworks. After completing graduate school, he was hired by the American Broadcasting Company, where he wrote memos about the importance of new ways to distribute media, such as satellites and broadband networks. This work led to his role as manager of technology forecasting. Later, national magazines published his articles about the future of cable distribution systems, which helped him join the National Cable Television Association. There, he created the Office of Science and Technology and designed high-speed data communication systems for member companies. Eventually, Weaver became the chief engineer for the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, where he influenced laws related to telephone, television, and cable industries.

At the same time, Weaver started a company called VideoMagic Laboratories with a friend from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Together, they wrote a 400-page business plan to sell their lab work. Through MIT’s Industrial Liaison Office, they connected with a wealthy electronics family that provided funding. VideoMagic developed technologies like location-based entertainment systems, which Weaver called "radical and cutting-edge." However, the company struggled to make money from these ideas. The funding family later left the venture due to financial problems and sold some of VideoMagic’s assets. After leaving the House Subcommittee, Weaver founded Media Technology Associates, Limited (later renamed Media Technology Limited in March 1988) in June 1981. The company offered engineering and media consulting services to private companies and government groups, with offices in Maryland and New York.

At Media Technology, Weaver worked with Ed Fletcher, an electrical engineer he had previously collaborated with at VideoMagic, to create video games for LaserDisc-based systems until that industry declined in 1984. While waiting for new projects, the company bought an Amiga personal computer. Fletcher, who loved American football, suggested developing a football game for the system. Weaver supported the idea even though he was not interested in the sport. Fletcher created the game, later named Gridiron!, at Weaver’s home in Bethesda, Maryland, in about nine months. Fletcher first used lookup tables to connect player inputs to outcomes, but Weaver disliked this approach. Instead, they designed a more realistic system based on physics. The game had poor graphics because no artists or animators were involved.

Weaver started Bethesda Softworks as a division of Media Technology on June 28, 1986, in his Bethesda home. He called it an experiment to test whether the PC market could support game development. He initially named the company "Softwerke" but changed it to "Bethesda Softworks" after discovering the name was already used by a Virginia-based company. Weaver considered other names, such as one using the word "magic," but "Bethesda Softworks" became the official name. Unlike VideoMagic, Bethesda Softworks was self-funded, starting with about $100,000. Gridiron! was released as the company’s first game in 1986 for the Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64 systems. A small initial print run of a few hundred copies sold out in one week.

Gridiron! received positive reviews in gaming publications. Electronic Arts was developing the first John Madden Football game and hired Bethesda to help complete it. Electronic Arts also gained rights to distribute future versions of Gridiron!. In June 1988, Bethesda stopped working on the game and sued Electronic Arts for $7.3 million, claiming EA delayed its release while using its ideas in Madden. The case was settled out of court.

Actress Courteney Cox, later famous for her role in the sitcom Friends, briefly worked at the publisher in the 1980s. Former hockey player Bobby Orr was reported to have contributed to a Bethesda game called Slapshot!.

In 1990, the company moved from Bethesda to Rockville, Maryland. That same year, it released By Design, a software tool for improving graphics. By February 1993, the company employed 40 people.

Bethesda’s first game based on a popular film franchise was The Terminator for MS-DOS, released in July 1991, the same year Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released in theaters.

In 1994, the company released The Elder Scrolls: Arena, the first game in the Elder Scrolls role-playing series. The game was developed by Programmer Julian LeFay, Director and Producer Vijay Lakshman, and others. Later games in the series included The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, released in September 1996.

Between 1994 and 1997, Bethesda worked on a space combat game called The 10th Planet with Roland Emmerich’s Centropolis Entertainment. Centropolis stopped the project due to its focus on films, and the game was never released.

In 1995, Bethesda acquired Flashpoint Productions, a company founded by Brent Erickson in 1992. That same year, Bruce Nesmith joined Bethesda as Senior Producer, and the company launched its website on the World Wide Web.

In 1997, Bethesda acquired XL Translab, a graphics company from Washington, D.C., which had previously worked for PBS and Fortune 500 companies. XL Translab was moved to Bethesda’s Rockville headquarters. By 1996, Bethesda had become the third-largest privately held PC publisher, with 75 employees and $25 million in revenue by 1997.

In June and July 1997, Bethesda announced a partnership with CBS Enterprises to create a companion PC game series for the TV show Pensacola: Wings of Gold. By December 1997, the first CD-ROM game was still in production.

In 1997 and 1998, Bethesda released two Elder Scrolls spin-offs, Battlespire and Redguard, based on Daggerfall’s code. These games were less successful than Daggerfall and Arena. Declining sales led the company to consider bankruptcy.

In October 1999, Pete Hines joined Bethesda to lead its marketing department, managing it as a one-person team. At the time, the company had only about 15 employees in

Games published

• Wayne Gretzky Hockey (1988–1992)
• Terminator series (1990–1996)
• The Elder Scrolls series (1994–present)
• Symbiocom (1998)
• Zero Critical (1998)
• IHRA Drag Racing series (2000–2006)
• Pirates of the Caribbean series (2003–2006)
• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (2005)
• Star Trek series (2006–2007)
• Fallout series (2008–present)
• Wet (2009)
• Rogue Warrior (2009)
• Rage series (2010–2019)
• Brink (2011)
• Hunted: The Demon's Forge (2011)
• Dishonored series (2012–2017)
• Doom series (2012–present)
• Wolfenstein series (2014–present)
• The Evil Within series (2014–2017)
• Prey (2017)
• Deathloop (2021)
• Ghostwire: Tokyo (2022)
• Hi-Fi Rush (2023–2025)
• Redfall (2023)
• Starfield (2023)
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024)

Conflicts with other developers

In 2001, Bethesda Softworks released the video game Echelon in the United States. The game was created by Madia, a Russian development studio. Madia claimed that Bethesda did not pay for boxed sales of the game, as stated in their contract. The developers at Madia wrote an open letter to Bethesda explaining the situation, but Bethesda refused to pay. Eventually, Madia chose not to take the matter to court. Pete Hines, Vice President of Public Relations at Bethesda, said that Madia made false claims about Bethesda’s role as the publisher of Echelon in North America and that Bethesda had no legal responsibilities to Madia.

Bethesda Softworks and its parent company, ZeniMax Media, have been accused of trying to take over Human Head Studios through a hostile acquisition. They were also accused of successfully taking over Arkane Studios in a similar way. According to a report from IGN, ZeniMax allegedly caused Human Head Studios to miss project deadlines on purpose so that the company would not be paid, which would allow ZeniMax to buy Human Head at a lower price. ZeniMax was also accused of doing the same with Arkane Studios, though Arkane agreed to be bought. The failed attempt to take over Human Head Studios led to the cancellation of Human Head’s game Prey 2, as reported.

Bethesda also asked the developer No Matter Games to change the name of its game Prey for the Gods to Praey for the Gods. Bethesda claimed that the original title might have violated its own trademark for the game Prey. Pete Hines, who works as Bethesda’s Vice President of Marketing, said that Bethesda could have lost its Prey trademark if it had not requested the name change.

In September 2009, Bethesda Softworks sued Interplay Entertainment for using the Fallout trademark without permission. After a long legal process, the case was settled in January 2012. Interplay received $2 million, and Bethesda gained the right to develop a Fallout massively multiplayer online game. Bethesda also received the rights to Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel after December 31, 2013.

In September 2011, ZeniMax Media, Bethesda’s parent company, sued Mojang, the company behind Minecraft. ZeniMax claimed that Mojang’s plan to trademark the name Scrolls violated Bethesda’s trademark for The Elder Scrolls series. On October 18, Markus Persson, the founder of Mojang, said that Mojang had won a temporary court order but that Bethesda could still appeal the decision. In March 2012, Mojang and Bethesda reached an agreement. Mojang agreed not to trademark Scrolls, and Bethesda agreed not to challenge Mojang’s use of the name, as long as Scrolls was not a direct competitor to The Elder Scrolls.

In 2018, Bethesda Softworks sued Behaviour Interactive, the company that created Fallout Shelter, for copying the game’s design into a mobile game for the Westworld franchise. The issue was resolved with terms that were not made public, allowing Bethesda to end the lawsuit.