What are Bethesda working on... A look at their studios
Bethesda had a weird 2025, they released a lot of content, but only one single original game. Their existing titles of Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls Online grew with many new updates and even their mobile games got in on the action.
But their only new game to release last year was DOOM: The Dark Ages, which launched in May and then got a few decent sized updates over the remainder of the year. In fact, these are the games that were published in 2025, with those titles that are bolded being original releases:
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - PlayStation 5
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered - PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Doom: The Dark Ages - PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Heretic + Hexen - Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition - PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition - Nintendo Switch 2
While there were no closures in 2025, there were a number of studios that saw staff laid off, the biggest of them was ZeniMax Online Studios, home of The Elder Scrolls Online. That team was hit twice across the year, leaving more than 200 folks without jobs, some of whom were only merged into the studio in 2024 after Microsoft shut down their original studio.
If you are curious to see how we did in years past, you can find our 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2022 Previews here.
Arkane
Known for: Dishonored | Last game released: Deathloop
We have now gone 2 years since the reveal of Blade from Arkane and in that time, there has not been a single official piece of information released. I say official as there was that ArtStation post that revealed some concept art, but it was not official and was quickly pulled. What we know this year is the same things we knew last year, it is a 3rd person, single-player game set in Paris.
Now given the time since it was announced, I imagine we see more of it this year, if only because the game has been in development at the studio since 2021. The studio does not have any major open roles that they are looking to fill, so that is a good sign. Will the game release this year, I think it will. Bethesda don’t have any other major games on the cards, and while it could skip 2026, I think with the amount of time it has been in development and how the studio has had a 4 year cycle between games for a while now, it feels right to release this year.
Bethesda game studios
Locations: Washington D.C., USA | Austin, USA | Dallas, USA | Montreal, Canada
Known for: Elder Scrolls, Fallout | Last game released: Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition
2025 was an oddly quiet year for the Bethesda Game Studios team, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered released, but the bulk of the work was done by Virtuous and then they ended the year with Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition, which underwhelmed a lot of folks. It was strange to see two vastly different approaches to their tent pole series, one got a lot of attention to every aspect of the game, the other was repackaged bundle. Across the year they did release a lot of content for Castles, that Elder Scrolls mobile game people forget about and Fallout Shelter finally got some new DLC, to tie it into the second season of the Fallout TV series. Nintendo Switch 2 players were not left wanting, as Skyrim came to the platform and was free to anyone who owned the Skyrim Anniversary Edition Bundle, but it was also not well received.
For 2026, there is nothing new that we know about from this team. Comments from Todd Howard have indicated that The Elder Scrolls VI could release this year, but it is more than likely going to be 2027 or later. There are no platforms announced, but Xbox and PC to be sure, PlayStation 5 and Switch 2 maybe. Given the studio has moved to a reveal and release a few months later cadence, I don’t think we see anything from this game this year, instead a mid-2027 reveal for a late 2027 release. For the one thing we know about from this team, that is that Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition will make the jump to Nintendo Switch 2, just as a digital release, but it will mark the series first proper entry on a Nintendo platform, I am not counting Fallout Shelter in that. Fallout 76 will continue to get content updates across the year, heck they just launched a pretty big one late last year to again tie into the second season of the show.
id Software
Locations: Dallas, USA | Frankfurt, Germany
Known for: DOOM, Quake, Rage | Last game released: DOOM: The Dark Ages
2025 saw id Software release their third DOOM game since the series rebooted and The Dark Ages added a lot to the series, including some explorable locations. Players though were a little mixed on some of the additions, which were justifiable, given how much legacy the series had. Since release, the team have released a few massive updates, adding things like the Rippatorium to the game, letting players create custom challenge maps and the like, to test their skills with.
As for 2026, unless the team bring the game to Nintendo Switch 2, which is possible, I doubt we will hear much from them for a while, as they begin to work on whatever project is next.
MACHINEGAMES
Known for: Wolfenstein | Last game released: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
2025 was an interesting year for Machinegames, they were coming off the release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for Xbox and PC, to which many, including us, called a fantastic game. In April the game released on PlayStation 5 and was made to take advantage of the platform and its various offerings. The game was then announced to be coming to Nintendo Switch 2 this year, alongside the launch trailer of the games story expansion, which released on all platforms on the same day.
Now outside of the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Indiana, I don’t expect that we will hear much from this team any time soon, outside of the fact that it would not surprise me to see them being co-devs on Blade. Machinegames and Arkane Lyon have a close relationship and if the latter needs support, I can see the former jumping in to help. There are reports that the studio is working on a new Wolfenstein game, which sure, but don’t expect that until 2028 at the earliest.
Zenimax Online Studios
Locations: Maryland, USA | Budapest, Hungry | Seattle, USA | Madison, USA
Known for: The Elder Scrolls Online | Last game released: The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road
2025 was a bit of rough year at ZOS, the MMO that they had been working on for years was cancelled and as such a few hundred staff were let go. In protest or due to the decision, Matt Firor, the creative director on The Elder Scrolls Online, left the studio. If that were the only big impact to the group, you could try and explain it away, but there was more. The major content drop for the year was Seasons of the Worm Cult, which brought back the foes from the original games storyline and put them on a new island with the Writhing Wall and all that it entailed. Players did not like it, the Writhing Wall content did not land as expected, the ability to sub-class was not as flawless as hoped and while the change to seasonal drops went by without much fan fare, many players were annoyed at losing the big expansion.
So what does 2026 hold for the game? There are a lot of changes coming to the game this year, you can learn about those here. Beyond those known changes, I am sure the team have more than a few surprises in store for things, but who knows how experimental those will be.
There we go, Bethesda. What is really sad is that two years ago there were 9 studios on this list and now there are 5 and one of them is half the team they used to be. With there being two live service games still going strong, I know we will hear more Bethesda across the year, I just hope there is less game cancellation in 2026.
