Bethesda games are filled with the magic of Western RPGs; massive open worlds with different systems and playstyles are staples of the company’s extremely successful titles. Another commonality is their general bugginess, all thanks to Bethesda’s proprietary Creation engine. If your game has ever soft-locked, corrupted a save file or just crashes a ton, you’ve got the Creation engine to thank for it. This bad reputation may be why a massive upgrade for the engine is in the works right now at Bethesda.
Speaking at Develop: Brightonwith James Batchelor of GamesIndustry.biz, Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard said that work on the engine has been in progress for quite some time now, although that reveal may have been a slip of the tongue. “The engine work we started a while ago… ugh I didn’t want to say, oh my God. It’s been a while,” said Howard.
Apparently, work on improving the engine hasn’t just been going on in the background at Bethesda, it’s been a major project. “We have more people doing engine work now by a factor of five, probably than we’ve ever had,” said Howard. “The overhaul in our engine is probably the largest we’ve ever had.”
For fans of Bethesda games, hearing this from Todd Howard should be like music to the ears. The Creation engine’s last upgrade was forFallout 4, and while it made the game look pretty outstanding (at least for aFallouttitle) at the time, it’s aged quite poorly, and of course, comes with a heap of bugs and exploits.
Fundamentally, the Creation engine won’t be changing that much though. It will still be built to house enormous fantastical worlds, namely those inThe Elder Scrolls VIandStarfield, both of which will make use of the engine. Above all else though, this new version of Bethesda’s Creation engine will continue to support modding, a core aspect of any Bethesda title on PC. So don’t worry, you’ll still be able to mod Naruto or Master Chief into yourElder Scrolls VIgame, someone just has to make the mods first.
It’s impossible to say though whether Bethesda’s upcoming titles will have mod support on consoles. WithThe Elder Scrolls VIlikely coming to boththePlayStation 5andXbox Series consoles, only time will tell.
