Rubbing shoulders with factions is a big part of the Fallout: New Vegas charm, even if it often devolves into you doing a bunch of favours if you don't want to risk ending up on the vilified naughty list for one too many accidental grenade pickpocktings. You do get some nice perks for keeping the likes of the NCR or Legion on side, but a new mod aims to take that to a new level, letting you send faction cronies out on handy odd jobs while you kick your feet up.
The second series of Amazon’s Fallout adaptation has now fully emerged from the vault, its eight episodes having been plinked out gradually, rather than whipped out in one fell swoop. Naturally, one of us has taken in the show how its distributors intended, injecting a stimpak a week in calm and measured fashion. The other waited until all the episodes were out, and then injected them all at once like an unhinged adventurer blowing through half their chem stash in a mid-fight panic. I’ll let you try to work out which is which, here’s our verdict.
Major spoilers for season 2 of the Fallout TV Show lie ahead.
Welcome back to yet another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news! We’ve got quite a bit to cover today, so let’s not waste too much time with a preamble and hop right into this list of headlines. Regime change at Microsoft Gaming and Xbox: According to reporting at IGN this afternoon, Microsoft Gaming CEO […]
March 9th is shaping up to be a significant boon for Elder Scrolls Online’s community, as ZeniMax is prepping Update 49 and an array of player-requested improvements. These include free build changes, account-wide outfit slot unlocks, an increase to the furnishing limit cap, cheaper bag and bank space expansion, and a whole ton of mounts […]
There are a handful of studios out there that, if they revealed they were using generative AI in their games, I'd be particularly heartbroken about. Bethesda is absolutely one of them - hand-crafted, detailed worlds and quests full of memorable moments and flair are the core pillars that helped it make some of the best RPGs of all time. Even the procedural generation used in many of Starfield's vast planets muddied the waters a bit, so injecting AI-generated content into its games could be even more damaging and disappointing. Todd Howard has previously gone on record to say that AI is not generating anything inside the studio, and in a new interview with Kinda Funny, he reaffirms that. However, he appears open to adopting AI tools that can help Bethesda tackle "big data tasks" so that developers can "move on to the creative stuff."
Todd Howard has appeared on the Kinda Funny Games podcast, discussing all things Bethesda. For the most part, it was about major industry talking points, ranging from AI to The Elder Scrolls 6 news. But there was also some talk about Starfield updates coming soon.
Todd Howard confirms Starfield updates aren’t a 2.0 overhaul
During the show, around the four-minute mark, the Kinda Funny Games host mentioned he visited the Creator Roundup for Starfield sometime in December and addressed that “you can say you went to something, but not say what.” It led to speculation around the internet that there’s something massive on the horizon. However, it’s not the 2.0 overhaul many expect, Howard explained.
“We’ve been working on a lot of Starfield content, we just haven’t managed to talk about it yet,” Howard said. “We are going to be talking about it really soon. We are moving into a phase where we are ready to be talking about Starfield, and really show that the right way and what is coming to the game.”
Todd referred to the preamble marketing around December in anticipation of Fallout Season 2. That’s when Todd last did media appearances promoting the new show. It’s also where fans got teases of future shadow drops following Oblivion remasters successful launch.
Starfield updates will refine existing features, not reinvent the game
“We’ve been doing a lot of work that we like a lot. It is not Starfield 2.0,” Howard said. “I’ve seen some of that (online), and it’s about expectation setting. If you love Starfield – we think you’re going to love this. It is updates and changes to the game that don’t change things in an isolated way, but it’s more meta in using outer space and things in ways we haven’t.”
Based on Howard’s comments, the updates seem to improve the core features that make Starfield what it is. It sounds like improvements to the outer space gameplay, a specifically mentioned by Todd. We reckon there’s probably refinements to systems like settlements and colonies, or maybe world generation if they are talking about underutilised parts of the game. It’s why the initial reception suggested this could be Starfield 2.0.
However, if you didn’t like Starfield originally, don’t get excited. “If Starfield didn’t connect with you or you bounced off it, I don’t think this is going to change that fundamentally,” Howard said.
This clarifies why Bethesda doesn’t want to call it 2.0. It’s not a complete renovation of the game, just adding and refining what’s already there. If you hated Starfield for various reasons, you’ll probably still dislike these updates. But if you were at least lukewarm or positive about Starfield, this might be worth checking out when Bethesda officially reveals it soon.
The Elder Scrolls 6 has reached a major internal development milestone and will be Bethesda’s first game built on Creation Engine 3, studio director Todd Howard revealed during a Kinda Funny Games podcast interview. Over 250 developers are now working on the project, with most of Bethesda Game Studios’ internal team focused on returning to the “classic style” that defined Skyrim.
Bethesda returns to classic Elder Scrolls formula with Creation Engine 3
“We do have a certain style that we like and our fans like that we want to get better at,” Howard said. “In many ways, Starfield and Fallout 76 are a creative detour from that classic Elder Scrolls and Fallout (style), where you’re exploring a world in a certain way. As we come back to Elder Scrolls 6, which we are working on now, we are coming back to that classic style that we’ve missed and know really well.”
Howard emphasized that Creation Engine 3 represents years of technical evolution. “We spent the last, you know, several years bringing Creation Engine 2, which powers Starfield, up to Creation Engine 3, that’s going to power Elder Scrolls 6 and beyond,” he explained. Not much is known about the transition from Engine 2 to 3, but hopefully it addresses the age and wear and tear of the now ancient engine.
Elder Scrolls 6 development ramping up after Starfield launch
The extended development timeline between The Elder Scrolls 6’s 2018 announcement and 2026 can be partly explained by the engine overhaul. Creation Engine 2 was designed specifically to power Starfield, which took roughly seven years to develop and release. The Elder Scrolls 6 has now progressed through two iterations of the Creation Engine while maintaining Bethesda’s distinctive design philosophy.
While Howard confirmed the game recently passed a major internal milestone, he did not share a release date. Most of Bethesda’s internal team now works on The Elder Scrolls 6 alongside third-party studios, while smaller teams handle Fallout 76 updates and Starfield post-launch support. The development team includes many veterans from Skyrim alongside new talent.
Howard appeared on the Kinda Funny Games podcast on February 18th, his first major interview since the Fallout Season 2 premiere in December 2025 where he last spike about ES6. The wide-ranging discussion covered Starfield’s reception, AI in game development, and Howard’s career at Bethesda.
Bethesda Game Studios boss Todd Howard has flattened hope for a major Starfield overhaul by stating that the long-awaited update in development "is not Starfield 2.0".
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim getting a native Nintendo Switch 2 version was one of those no-brainers we expected to see as soon as the console launched, yet it took more than a few months to arrive, and when it finally did, it was a mess. What happened there? It's a game from 2011, for Talos' sake.
Fallout Season 2 and the imminent arrival of Fallout 4's Switch 2 port have led to a plethora of news on the past, present, and future of the franchise. Of course, that includes plenty of new insights on the development of the more distant games, such as Fallout 3.
If you haven't been watching, Fallout Season 2 is pretty great and has been enjoying a good deal of success. So much so that Season 3 is already well into the writing stage. New games are sadly still a ways off, however, which is why both veteran and new players are flocking to Fallout 4 and other entries to go post-apocalyptic.
Troy Baker, one of the most well known actors working in video games, believes generative AI could have a positive effect overall on performing arts. Baker thinks it'll cause a reaction whereby people will seek out "authentic" experiences more - live shows, live theatre - and turn away from "gruel that gets distilled to me through a black mirror".
For long-running MMOs, finding a way to make all your old, current, and future content easy to decipher and accessible can be a bit of a minefield. What is or isn't tied to a subscription? Do I have to fork out extra for certain DLC expansions, activities, or features? What can newcomers access for free? It can be one of the biggest stumbling blocks, especially if you've been running for more than a decade like The Elder Scrolls Online. To make things more accessible and less confusing, ESO is transforming with its new Seasons. Now, Zenimax Online Studios has fully unveiled this new model, and when Season Zero arrives in April, loads of old and new content will become playable at no extra cost.
PlayStation Plus Extra is always filled with exciting games for PS4 and PS5 gamers to play. Some of these games included with the subscription are ongoing online experiences that regularly receive free updates, bringing brand-new content to the game. That includes the popular fantasy MMORPG, The Elder Scrolls Online.
PS Plus game The Elder Scrolls Online will get free content starting with Season 0
The Elder Scrolls Online is introducing Seasons to the MMORPG. Season 0 will kick things off, which will officially launch on April 2 and runs until July 8. As indicated by that window, each season will last three months long, and feature new rewards, adventures, and ways to play based on a single theme. ZeniMax Online Studios and Bethesda Softworks state that a Season can include new gameplay content, base-game changes and improvements, Tamriel Tome, and rotation of Gold Coast Bazaar items.
The Elder Scrolls Online’s Season Zero is called Dawn and Dusk. Here is everything included in the new seasonal update:
The Night Market Event Zone
The first wave of player experience improvements
The first wave of class and combat refresh improvements
The introduction of Tamriel Tomes with the Tome of Dawn and Dusk
The introduction of the Gold Coast Bazaar
Additionally, The Elder Scrolls Online’s Update 49 will release a few weeks before Season 0, on March 9. This will include a slew of player experience improvements. Here are the first wave of quality-of-life changes coming with Update 49:
The ability to respec Skills and Attributes directly from the UI at no cost
An increase to the speed at which you train your Riding skills
An increase to furnishing limits on half of the game’s player houses
A return to the 30-day listing window for Guild traders
16 mounts of all shapes and sizes moved from the Crown Store to gold vendors
One of these is a brand-new gold purchasable mount: the Ebon Dwarven Horse.
Increases to rarer Antiquities expiration times
A change to make Outfit Slots account-wide
And more!
For non-PS Plus subscribers, The Elder Scrolls Online is available on the PlayStation Store now for $19.99.
The informational hits keep on coming for Elder Scrolls Online’s big ol’ March content patch, and while most of the attention has been centered on its seasons and monetization reshuffling, there’s a variety of things also landing in Update 49, namely a refresh of the Dragonknight class. The tweaks to the Dragonknight primarily focus on […]
As fans of Elder Scrolls Online already know by now, this year is bringing a shift to a seasonal content release model for the MMORPG, including new events, an eventual enfolding of DLC into the game for free, and a business model update that centers on a battle pass system. But what about the benefits […]
So here we are, at the top of a new year, 12 whole months of screwing around in video games laid out before us. In tonight’s Massively Overthinking, we have but one question: What are you gonna do with those 12 months?! I’m asking our writers and readers to rattle off what they think will […]
Every time people discuss new things they would love to see in long-running MMORPGs, I see at least a few people speculating about things that aren’t just not happening but would fundamentally break the game. And it always makes a little twitch start up right behind my eye. It’s not that I don’t understand the […]
Yesterday, an article from investor website TipRanks circulated throughout the games industry: The rumor was that Microsoft is planning to cut somewhere between 11,000 and 22,000 jobs in January, roughly 10% of its current workforce, to allay the increased cost of data center expansion as part of the company’s hard push toward AI development. If […]
