Bethesda Softworks

Bethesda Softworks is a developer and publisher of computer and video games, owned by ZeniMax Media.

History
Bethesda Softworks has been a developer and publisher of interactive entertainment content for over two decades, founded in 1985 by Christopher Weaver.

With a broad panoply of games in role-playing, racing, simulation, and sports, Bethesda Softworks major franchises are distributed worldwide.

Divisions
Bethesda Game Studios (BGS) is the in-house development team led by Todd Howard and owned by Bethesda Softworks. Not all BGS titles are published by Bethesda Softworks.

"Bethesda Softworks" is often used to designate games "published" by Bethesda, both BGS projects and those developed externally.

Fallout
In 2004, Bethesda acquired the Fallout franchise from Interplay Entertainment. Todd Howard said in January 2007 that "We started work [on Fallout 3] in late 2004 with a few people. We only had about 10 people on it until Oblivion wrapped, but most of our staff is on it now."

Fallout 3 was released on October 28, 2008 and has won over 60 Game of the Year Awards – including honors from IGN, the Game Developers' Choice Awards and Game Critics Awards. Bethesda has continued to support Fallout 3 with five add-ons – Operation: Anchorage, The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta.

In 2009, Bethesda announced Fallout: New Vegas, a new entry in the Fallout series. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda itself, it is slated for release in 2010.

Other games
Other notable series by Bethesda Softworks include The Elder Scrolls (the series of which Oblivion is the 4th title).