It’s due to this emergent open world gameplay that Bethesda has found its own success, and also that it’s remained successful in the modern landscape of diverse open worlds. Howard attributes this to Bethesda’s goal of saying “yes” to the player more, but Howard is more than willing to acknowledge other studios’ successes:
Howard does note that this type of emergent gameplay can create a level of chaos that doesn’t work and may need a fix, but mostly players love it. It’s that type of experimentation, smashing two things together, that’s fun to play.
Going even further, Howard says that this type of gameplay that open world titles are built on is definitive, and that it’s the core nature of video games:
Expanding on what he means by video games making “you the director of your experience,” Howard says it’s because it allows players to grow more attached to their own experience. He believes that’s why Bethesda’s games like Skyrim and Fallout 4 are successful without multiplayer: [layers are able to take those single-player experiences and share them with friends in “water-cooler” moments, which only makes open world games feel larger.
Todd Howard’s currently working on releasing Skyrim for the Nintendo Switch, as well as other unannounced projects. He’s excited about the future of video games, but is unwilling to guess in what direction the industry is moving. He’d rather “enjoy the ride.”
