Todd Howard, the top man at Bethesda Game Studios (BGS), has finally broken his silence on just about everything Bethesda. This includes news on Fallout games (like Fallout 3, Fallout 5, and Fallout: New Vegas), confirmation of Obsidian Entertainment's Fallout spin-off (which we kinda already knew), updates on Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6, and more.

https://twitter.com/BethesdaStudios/status/2078117386935214101

There's a lot to get into, so let's jump in.

What's up with The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5?

In separate interviews with Jason Schreier of Bloomberg and Jez Corden of Windows Central, Howard confirmed that progress on The Elder Scrolls 6 is going well. He reiterated that the game is currently Bethesda's primary focus and that the project is "where we planned [it] to be, loving how it looks, and playing every day."

Meanwhile, Fallout 5 is in pre-production.

There are no launch windows or release dates for either project, and Howard said it's too early to talk about Xbox exclusivity.

What's the word on Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas?

Howard confirmed that Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas will get full remakes, but like ES6 and F5, there are no dates yet.

Obsidian Entertainment is returning to Fallout, then?

Howard said that, yes, the legendary RPG studio is going back to Fallout with a new spin-off. Details on the project are scarce at the moment, but Howard confirmed that "there's a huge amount of mutual respect [between Bethesda and Obsidian]" because their workflows are similar.

More information about whatever Fallout spin-off game Obsidian Entertainment is working on will come in the future.

So, there's more Starfield?

Howard said that Starfield development continues. The open-world space-exploration sim will get more content in the future, with a Starborn DLC coming down the pipeline. Alongside this expansion, the game will get more tools and features to enhance the Creation Club content, with Starfield being "an important part" of Bethesda Game Studios' future.

Did Howard say anything about the Xbox layoffs?

Howard told Schreier that the layoffs that came as a result of Xbox's massive "reset" were difficult for him and everyone involved. He mentioned that there have been periods in the past where Bethesda Game Studios has gone through changes, like how it almost went out of business back in the '90s. It's no different now.

"We're going through a change so that we focus best on the franchises and what we need to do to deliver for everybody."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3vP8EOmtRk What else is happening?

A "huge" DLC called Raven Rock is coming to Fallout 76 next year, which will serve as a prequel to Fallout 3. Bethesda Game Studios said the journey is "far from over."

This is maybe more for me, as someone who recently returned to The Elder Scrolls Online, but ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS) will "partner closely" with Bethesda Game Studios on The Elder Scrolls franchise. While this means ZOS will play support for The Elder Scrolls going forward, the team is also working on more seasons for ESO.

Is Bethesda Game Studios' future looking alright?

Based on all these new updates, the answer is likely yes. While The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 are probably still years away from release, Howard said that the entire studio is "building for the future of Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Starfield."

According to a lengthy July 17 post on X from Bethesda Game Studios, the team is investing in their technologies, bringing the teams closer together, supporting their live-service games, and "developing the next generation of Bethesda RPGs." Overall, it sounds as if Howard and BGS are excited about what's to come. The layoffs may have hit Xbox--and Bethesda--hard, but they're still trucking along.

Final Fantasy games have been rendered in 3D engines for far longer than they have in 2D, but the new trailer for Final Fantasy: Resonance wants you to imagine a world where Square Enix's risky 1997 gambit never happened. What would Final Fantasy look like if it stuck to its 2D pixel-art guns? We'd probably have gotten the HD-2D aesthetic a lot sooner, but regardless, this reimagining of the mobile gacha game Fantasy Brave Exvius continues to look stunning:

https://youtu.be/ftCvnEE6rfI

While the new trailer doesn't outright say it, it heavily suggests that viewers should use their imagination to dream up a world without a 3D Final Fantasy 7. It was the first game in the series to shift to 3D graphics, which were in their infancy back then. It was a high-stakes move for Square--which had not yet merged with Enix--and it required a shift to CD-ROM so that the idea of pre-rendered backgrounds and high-fidelity audio could be realized.

The budget was also enormous, and Square was essentially betting its entire future on a single project that required its developers to quickly learn how to operate in a 3D space and scale up to meet the demands of an ambitious game. Fortunately, Final Fantasy 7 made it across the finish line, and the wow factor of it made it an instant best-seller--a game whose legacy can still be felt to this day and has been the focus of a grand remake trilogy.

Final Fantasy 7 characters would also appear many years later in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, provided you were lucky enough to summon them when you burned through tickets. One of the cool things about the mobile game was that these high-level pulls came with CG-rendered movies whenever they activated their Limit Break attacks, with Cloud and Sephiroth looking especially impressive in action. Final Fantasy Resonance won't include characters from the Final Fantasy franchise, as all those free-to-play mechanics have been stripped out.

Instead, the focus is on the core cast of original characters--Rain, Lasswell, Fina, Lid, Nichol, and Jake--as they set out to protect the Crystals scattered across the world from the mysterious Sworn Eight of Paladia. It'll be coming to PC and console on October 22, but if you're planning to grab it for Switch, you'll want to think carefully which Nintendo handheld you choose it for, given Square Enix's lack of upgrade paths for its HD-2D games. It's not the first time that Square Enix has resurrected one of its mobile games for new platforms, and we'd love to see the company bring more of its dead mobile projects back to life.

As part of Bethesda's big announcements today about its future and what's coming next, the company also gave an update on Starfield. In its statement, Bethesda said, "Starfield remains an important part of our future."

Starfield released in September 2023, so the game is now going into its third year. Bethesda said it will continue to expand the game with "new stories, targeted gameplay improvements, and additional updates." There will be "new Starborn content" coming to the game in 2027, Bethesda added.

Starfield fans are getting more Starfield in 2027.

The game reached more than 17 million people, but it hasn't sold that many copies, as it's also available on Xbox Game Pass.

Starfield got an expansion called Shattered Space in 2024, and the game expanded further from there with a PS5 release in 2026. An update called Free Lanes arrived in April 2026, along with a new story expansion called Terran Armada.

Bethesda's other updates today included the announcement that Fallout 5 has entered pre-production and that remasters of Fallout 3 and New Vegas are in the works. Additionally, Bethesda gave an update on The Elder Scrolls 6, saying, "We’re where we planned to be, loving how it looks, and playing it every day."

Bethesda made these announcements amid a tumultuous time at studio owner Xbox. The company laid off 1,600 people recently, with another 1,600 set to lose their jobs in the next year. Microsoft also confirmed plans to divest studios as part of a plan to "reset" the business.