Todd Howard Feels Oblivion “Vaulted” the Company to Its Wider Audience

Most people think that Morrowind or Skyrim blew Bethesda up, but Todd Howard says that Oblivion had more to do with it in an interview which we go over here!
The Elder Scrolls Oblivion Character With Frost Staff
Image: Bethesda

Todd Howard talked about his career from Bethesda to Starfield in an interview with Wired. He talks about his own experiences growing up in the company and shares some thoughts about it. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind brought the company back from the brink of bankruptcy and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim made the company legendary, and so The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is not given enough credit.

During the interview, Howard spoke on how the company decided not to make a direct sequel to Morrowind but to try a newer setting. Oblivion would be the game they would try for. Oblivion was the game that opened the series up to way more people than Morrowind could.

“This was a game that, for many reasons, it vaulted us to an audience we had never expected to see on PC and the Xbox. It comes out later on PlayStation, and it really starts this other era of games for us.”

Todd Howard

I was one of the gamers who recognized Bethesda as a huge powerhouse when I played Oblivion. Oblivion was the game I was always looking for but had no idea it existed. To this day I feel like it’s my favorite Elder Scrolls game and would love to see a remaster.

It’s rare when anyone gives Oblivion any credit because for Skyrim to reach the audience it does, it needed to have a good foothold in the industry already. It was a great game and was far more inviting than any previous game because it dumbed down a lot of mechanics and made things more welcoming. However, the credit that the company got outside of just hardcore fantasy and RPG fans with Oblivion helped Skyrim.

It is a nice bit of information to know and gives us Oblivion lovers a reason to cheer. Oblivion kind of feels like the lowest of the trio, and to be honest it’s still a great game that holds up today.

Make sure to check out what Howard said about Redguard helping the creation of Morrowind.

Jorge A. Aguilar

Jorge A. Aguilar

Jorge A. Aguilar, also known as Aggy, is the current Assigning Editor.

He started his career as an esports, influencer, and streaming writer for Sportskeeda. He then moved to GFinity Esports to cover streaming, games, guides, and news before moving to the Social team where he ended his time as the Lead of Social Content.

He also worked a writer and editor for both Pro Game Guides and Dot Esports, and as a writer for PC Invasion, Attack of the Fanboy, and Android Police. Aggy is the former Managing Editor and Operations Overseer of N4G Unlocked and a former Gaming editor for WePC.

Throughout his time in the industry, he's trained over 100 writers, written thousands of articles on multiple sites, written more reviews than he cares to count, and edited tens of thousands of articles. He has also written some games published by Tales, some books, and a comic sold to Telus International.

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