OK look i know this is probably a stupid question but i can't find the answer. On the bethesda site where it says in development there are four games but when you click on trailers.for instance Brink.. it was made by splash damage .. so i was wondering if someone could explain all the sub divisions of bethesda and which one created skyrim because they are very good. please don't call me stupid i honestly don't know.

that is the people like todd howard. i know him what I am asking is who all works for Zeni Max media and which company made Brink and which company made Skyrim becuae they are on the same site with different developers

Bethesda Softworks owns a bunch of developers. One of them is Bethesda Game Studios, that's the one you're asking for.

oh. so they share the same name.. thats why i was getting confused. so did bethesda game studios make all of the elder scrolls like is that copyrighted to them

Bethesda Softworks owns NO ONE.

Several developers are owned by Zenimax Media, including Bethesda Game Studios.


Yes, they did make all of them, except for the mobile games (Dawnstar, Shadowkey, etc). Those were another division of Zenimax.

Bethesda Game Studios is the company actively developing the game. Their publisher is Bethesda Softworks. Bethesda Softworks also publishes other games not made by Bethesda Game Studios, which is where you get games made by Obsidian, Splash Damage, id, and InXile.

All the assets of these companies are owned by Zenimax. Zenimax administers, Bethesda Game Studios develops, and Bethesda Softworks publishes.

Bethesda Game Studios (BGS) develops TES and Fallout series. Splash Damage is developing Brink, ID Software is developing RAGE, and Bethesda Softworks publishes them all.

whats the difference between developing and publishing. why do they have the same name

Developers make the game, while Publishers market it and distribute it.

Actually I think they do own Bethesda Game Studios.

last question and thank you so much by the way.. what does zeni max media do someone state administers but ya what specifically and is bethesda game studios the one that makes the most money because the developer and publisher have the same name

is that why they have the same name?

All of them are under the Zenimax Media umbrella. They publish the games and it is like a joint venture with Bethesda Softworks.

Bethesda Softworks were the developers of Arena, Daggerfall, and Morrowind. As they grew they just branched out and created Bethesda Game Studios who developed Oblivion and Fallout 3. Bethesda Softworks carried out the publishing.

Developers actually make the game. The trees, rocks, people, quests, everything you see in video games are done by the developer. The publisher is responsible for marketing. They make the ads, get the money to where it needs to go, manage certain services, and make sure the game gets onto shelves.

The reason that the two have similar names is that they used to be synonymous. Bethesda simply made games, and they would leave it to other companies to publish. Oblivion was published by 2K, Morrowind was published by Ubisoft. Bethesda Softworks has always been a publisher, but I believe they were pretty limited in what they could do at the time, because publishing is a pretty big financial responsibility. EA, for instance, plans to spend $100 million on the marketing campaign for Battlefield 3 alone. Most companies don't have that kind of money to throw away and get their name out there. After many successful game releases, however, I don't think Bethesda Softworks has any worry about money, giving them liberty to publish all of their own games as well as the games of Zenimax's other studios, starting with the PS3 release of Oblivion. Steam is also a very useful partner because it helps save a lot of money on physical boxes and distribution, while protecting against piracy at the same time.

Unlike all of Zenimax's other studios, Bethesda Game Studios is "owned" by Bethesda Softworks. It's an in-house subset, and that is why they share the "Bethesda" name.

edit: durp

that makes a lot more sense so Todd howard was with bethesda softworks developing morrowind then they sent him to a new thing they made called bethesda game studios so the game studious did the developing and softworks did the publishing because they got to big? am i close

My computer sent a duplicate message sorry

Yea, ID and Arkane studios too now. Zenimax has a very nice portfolio.

Bethesda Softworks and Bethesda Game Studios were one in the same, essentially. They had some small scale publishing power with an in-house development team. Its always been like this, we just only hear about Bethesda Softworks more often nowadays because they're actually a powerful publishing force, whereas they used to be very small scale compared to other operations like EA.

Yea, that's exactly right.

that answered everything thank you and thank you to everyone who helped

thanks i really appreciate it

Also, just in case anyone wants to know more about the companies, http://i681.photobucket.com/albums/vv175/Proditus/ZeniMap2.jpg a while back. I knew it would come in handy someday.