Recently Bethesda have published a few different titles that are developed by 3rd party studios.

This made me wonder, why didn't they publish "Oblivion" themselves?

In the UK at least the publisher was 2K.

Why didn't they publish it themselves?

Cheers,

Az

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_The_Elder_Scrolls_IV:_Oblivion#Publisher_relations

It was published by both Bethesda Softworks and Take-Two Interactive

Bethesda Softworks and 2K were co-publishers of Oblivion in North America - basically 2K was brought on to be a distributor while Bethesda managed the marketing and PR. I don't believe 2K fronted any money for Oblivion, whereas with most games the publisher funds all or most of the developement.

At the time Oblivion was released Bethesda hadn't expanded internationally to any great extent. Today they have multiple European offices and Zenimax Asia, but at the time Bethesda generally hired local publishers for international markets. Even with their last few titles this has been true, FO3 and FONV had a separate publisher for Russia (and Eastern Europe?), and another publisher for Australia. Possibly other publishers for other markets as well.

Wow.

I feel like Kyle in an episode of "South Park".

"I've learned something"!

Thank you for the explanations.

Do we know who is publishing "Skyrim" when it is released yet?

Cheers,

Az

There have been some theories, but not anything official about the release date, for Skyrim.

Actually, Bethesda themselves have given the release date as 11.11.11.

Oh, i heard it was November, but the guy who told me it (2-3 months ago), told me it wasn't totally official... Yet.