Todd Howard’s Growth in Bethesda Needs to be Studied- How Did He Become the Face of Bethesda in Matter of Years?

In the world of role-playing games, Bethesda has made a huge name for itself. Be it Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, or Starfield, this American video gaming company has surfaced one of the best role-playing titles of all time. However, the honors for these accolades go to one and only Todd Howard.

This man is right now the director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios. Howard was the main man behind the development of the aforementioned RPG titles, being the game director. He joined Bethesda back in 1994, but right now he is literally the face of the company.

Todd Howard’s Stint at Bethesda

Howard was eventually hired as a producer by Bethesda Softworks in 1994. Skynet and The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, both of which were released in 1996, were designed by him after he was the producer and designer of The Terminator: Future Shock (1995), his first game development credit for Bethesda. For the first time, he oversaw the development of The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, which came out in 1998.

Howard became the project manager and designer for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and its sequels in 2000. After its 2002 release, the game won multiple Game of the Year awards and was a critical and financial success. Then, as executive producer, he oversaw the development of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006).

He then worked as executive producer and game director for Fallout 3, which was released in 2008. As the creative director of the fifth game in the Elder Scrolls series, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which came out in November 2011, Howard rejoined the team.

He directed Fallout 4, which was released in November 2015, and later produced Fallout 76, a multiplayer game in the series that drew criticism upon its release in November 2018. In addition, Howard will be the executive producer of the next video game, which is being developed by MachineGames and Lucasfilm Games and is based on the Indiana Jones movie series.

What Made Todd Howard the Face of Bethesda?

At the time, Bethesda Softworks was in decline. They were playing the “do what you want ’cause maybe we’re going down” type of game, which was their final one. They were a huge success, making Morrowind. Howard led the Morrowind project. After that, each game became increasingly popular (except for Fallout 76). Therefore, it’s not shocking. In addition, Howard is not the only person in the company.

People tend to forget that Battlespire, Le Fay’s final game in the series, was a commercial failure as well. The main distinction was that, although Redguard completely deviated from series conventions, it generally received favorable critical reviews, whereas Battlespire was a failure.

Todd created Morrowind and then directed back-to-back hits with Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Skyrim. People can say whatever they want about Todd now, but in those days, he truly created great games (with the right team behind him). In essence, both Le Fay and Howard made commercial flops that nearly bankrupted the company.

Todd was the only person left who appeared to be able to run the entire thing and still wanted to do so by the time Morrowind became their “make or break” game. The rest is history after that. In addition to having the freedom to do nearly anything he wanted, he was the director of some of the most popular and significant games ever made.