Bethesda has some big games in the works, including the highly anticipated The Elder Scrolls 6 and the new IP, Starfield. Both games will use an updated version of Bethesda's Creation Engine. This engine has been used in several other Bethesda games and is incredibly old. Fans have some mixed views about the engine and are worried about the visual quality of the upcoming games.
Todd Howard, director of Bethesda Game Studios, recently gave an interview to Develop: Brighton Digital. In the interview, he claimed that the Creation Engine has been heavily upgraded for Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6. He further claimed that the upgrade is larger than it was from Morrowind to Obilivion.
Bethesda upgrades their engine after every game, however, this time next-generation gaming is here. So, of course, the Creation Engine needs to be a lot better than it was before. The developer probably doesn't want to repeat another Fallout 76 fiasco.
“We refresh it [the Creation Engine] with every game. We, too, will acknowledge that it needs more work than it has in previous times, we do that between generations, and we've been doing it. I can say that the Creation Engine work we started a while ago...It's been a while,” Howard said in the interview. “We have more people doing engine work now by a factor of five probably than we've ever had, so the Creation Engine overhaul is the largest we've probably ever had. Maybe larger than Morrowind to Oblivion.”
That’s not all, Howard also talked about the possibility of multiplayer-focused games. Bethesda is known for making massive open-world single-player games, however, their first attempt at a multiplayer-focused game, Fallout 76, failed badly at launch….very, very badly.
Howard didn’t confirm any upcoming multiplayer games, but he didn’t completely rule them out either. “Overall, it's been a really positive experience. It's made us much better developers, it's made us better connected with our community, so I can't say it's going to be a one-off. Obviously, the stuff we have coming, Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI, are single-player games, but I wouldn't rule it out in the future, it's been a very positive experience,” he said in the interview.
