Bethesda has continued to expand its first-party development offerings over the past few years, and that now includes Bethesda Game Studios Dallas. That will be the new name of Escalation Studios, which has previously supported Bethesda across a variety of past – and future – titles.
Escalation has previously contributed to development for titles like Skyrim VR, Fallout 4 VR, and Fallout Shelter on Switch, as well as Doom 2016’s Snapmap feature. The folks at Escalation have also bolstered development on upcoming BGS titles including Fallout 76, The Elder Scrolls: Blades, and even the company’s next big single-player RPG, Starfield.
The newly-christened Bethesda Game Studios Dallas becomes the fourth BGS office, joining the likes of BGS Montreal, the home office in Rockville, Maryland, and a fellow Texas BGS location in Austin, Texas.
Escalation was purchased by Bethesda parent ZeniMax back in 2016, and it seems the studio is expanding as part of this announcement. There are plenty of job opportunities at the studio, including leadership roles in programming and environment art for triple-A – perhaps that suggests the office will have a fundamental role to play in future Bethesda games.
ZeniMax already has plenty of Texas-based development besides the two BGS studios, including id Software and Dishonored developer Arkane. And, of course, the Lone Star State is the host for QuakeCon, which seems to be why today marked the announcement of Escalation’s transition.
With Bethesda further bolstering its development efforts, maybe we won’t have to wait quite so long as we imagine for the Starfield release date. (But don’t hold your breath.)