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Bethesda Softworks

From Gridiron! to The Elder Scrolls

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Christopher Weaver's Bethesda Softworks began in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1986 with Gridiron!, an Amiga football game, and sued Electronic Arts over it in 1988. From 1994 The Elder Scrolls made it a role-playing publisher. In 1999 it became part of ZeniMax Media, which took over the Fallout series and id Software and was bought by Microsoft in 2021.

Bethesda Softworks began as a maker of sports games. Its first program was Gridiron!, an American football game for the Amiga, and within two years it was in court with Electronic Arts, which Bethesda sued in 1988 for $7.3 million, claiming EA had taken the game’s code into what became John Madden Football. The company that later made The Elder Scrolls was a small Maryland firm selling football and hockey simulations, and a film licence, when it released its first role-playing game, Arena, in 1994.

Fast facts

  • Founded: 1986, in Bethesda, Maryland, by Christopher Weaver; later based in Gaithersburg and Rockville, Maryland.
  • Early games: Gridiron! (1986), Wayne Gretzky Hockey (by 1989), The Terminator (1991).
  • The Elder Scrolls: Arena (1994), Daggerfall (1996), Morrowind (2002), Oblivion (2006), Skyrim (2011).
  • Fallout: won the right to make Fallout 3 in 2004 and bought the series in 2007 (see Fallout).
  • Owners: part of ZeniMax Media from 1999; ZeniMax was bought by Microsoft in 2021.

Gridiron! and the Madden lawsuit

In December 1986 Amazing Computing listed Bethesda Softworks at 9208 Burning Tree Road, Bethesda, Maryland, the same address as Media Technology Associates; Bethesda began as a division of Media Technology Limited. Gridiron! was on sale for the Amiga at $69.95.

Amazing Computing‘s review in April 1987 credited the game’s design and programming to Ed Fletcher, with digitised sound by “C.S. Weaver”, and called it “the only programmable football simulation for the Amiga on the market”: players could draw up their own plays as well as choose from 40 in the playbook. By then it was also available for the Atari ST. It won a 1987 Critics’ Choice award from Family Computing.

That year Bethesda joined Electronic Arts’ Affiliated Labels programme, under which EA distributed smaller publishers’ games, and EA took over distribution of Gridiron! 1.2, an improved version, according to Info in September 1987. A year later the arrangement had broken down. Antic reported in September 1988 that Bethesda had sued EA for $7.3 million, claiming EA had held exclusive Amiga and ST rights to Gridiron! and had “halted release of Gridiron after incorporating major portions of the program into a proposed John Madden Football game”. In 2001 Computer Gaming World, looking back at EA’s history, called it “Bethesda’s successful suit against EA for stealing GRIDIRON technology”.

Trip Hawkins, EA’s founder, disagreed when Retro Gamer put the claim to him in 2006. In his words, “Bethesda’s supposed lawsuit was baseless and the result of a $15,000 disagreement of the disposition of unsaleable inventory. The matter was resolved for something equal to or less than the value of that inventory.” The terms of the settlement have not been published. John Madden Football, announced in 1988, shipped for the Apple II in 1989 and became EA’s Madden series.

Hockey, Terminators and Arena

Bethesda kept making sports games. In 1988 Family Computing reported that Bethesda was about to unveil an ice hockey game, and that Weaver, as the company’s president, had thanked the Washington Capitals for donating time, coaching tips and technical advice. Computer Gaming World recommended the result, Wayne Gretzky Hockey, as a Christmas present in 1989, saying Gretzky and other players had helped to build its model of the game. By 1991 the company had moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland, and published The Terminator, designed by Weaver and Julian LeFay, in which the player could walk the streets of a city or steal a car and drive.

The Elder Scrolls, Volume 1: Arena changed the company. Computer Gaming World previewed it in December 1993 as the work of Vijay Lakshman and Julian LeFay: a whole continent split into nine provinces, “complete with politics and weather”, where snow piled in drifts and puddles reflected the buildings. The magazine’s role-playing reviewer, Scorpia, wrote in May 1994 that at a time when most companies were making shorter role-playing games, Bethesda “has gone against the grain” with a game “that could almost be a lifetime project for some players”, and compared it to “Might & Magic meets Ultima Underworld”. Its many side quests, she wrote, could take as long as another company’s whole game. The main quest itself was linear.

The sequel, Daggerfall, came out in 1996. Computer Gaming World’s preview listed curved walls, sloping ramps, water to swim in, 3D terrain that Arena had lacked, and characters built by answering two questionnaires. Scorpia’s review opened with the two questions readers were asking: was it better than Arena, and was it as buggy? “The answer to both questions is yes.” She still called it “the closest thing to real role-playing I’ve seen outside of the Ultimas”. By then the company’s address was Rockville, Maryland, and its trademarks belonged to Media Technology Limited.

ZeniMax and Morrowind

In 1999 Weaver and the lawyer Robert Altman formed ZeniMax Media, which took over Bethesda Softworks. Altman became chief executive and Weaver chief technology officer, each holding about 30% of the shares. Weaver’s three-year contract ran out in July 2002 without a new one being agreed, and he sued ZeniMax for $1.2 million in severance. The case was still in the Maryland courts in 2007, when the Court of Special Appeals set aside a lower court’s dismissal of it.

Morrowind came out in 2002 for the PC and the Xbox. Computer Gaming World called it “the definitive open-ended RPG epic”, despite “occasional crash bugs” and a journal that recorded everything but was hard to use. It shipped with an editor, and the review noted that mods had “already started to appear” (see modding). Oblivion followed in 2006; Edge reviewed it in May 2006.

Fallout and id

In 2004, after Black Isle Studios closed, Bethesda won the right to make Fallout 3, and in 2007 it bought the series from Interplay. Fallout 3 came out in 2008. Bethesda had left Interplay a licence to make an online Fallout game, and in 2009 went to court to end it; the companies settled in January 2012, when ZeniMax paid Interplay $2 million and the online game was abandoned. Obsidian Entertainment made Fallout: New Vegas for Bethesda in 2010, followed by Fallout 4 (2015) and Fallout 76 (2018).

ZeniMax bought id Software, the makers of Doom, on 24 June 2009, and id’s later games came out under the Bethesda label. Skyrim, in 2011, was made by Bethesda’s in-house developer, Bethesda Game Studios, and Edge ran its review beside Todd Howard’s account of the game’s making. The magazine gave it 9 out of 10 and described the bargain Bethesda’s games strike with players: the company builds “worlds of unrivalled scope, rich in lore and history”, and “we do all we can to ignore the rough edges that come, apparently, as the cost of such ambition.”

Microsoft

In September 2020 Microsoft announced that it would buy ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion in cash, and said that Bethesda’s games would come to its Game Pass subscription for Xbox and PC. The purchase was completed in March 2021. Starfield, Bethesda’s first new intellectual property in more than 25 years, came out in September 2023 for Windows and the Xbox Series X and S only. That exclusivity did not last: Starfield came to the PlayStation 5 on 7 April 2026.

Sources

  • Amazing Computing vol. 1 no. 9, December 1986: Amiga software listing (Gridiron, $69.95) and vendor directory (Bethesda Softworks and Media Technology Associates at 9208 Burning Tree Rd., Bethesda, MD).
  • Amazing Computing vol. 2 no. 4, April 1987: Gridiron! review (Ed Fletcher, digitised audio by C.S. Weaver, programmable plays, 40 plays, Amiga and Atari ST).
  • Info issue 16, September 1987, news, “EA to Handle Gridiron”: the Affiliated Labels programme and Gridiron 1.2 at $59.95.
  • Family Computing vol. 6 no. 4, April 1988: Gridiron!‘s 1987 Critics’ Choice award; the coming ice hockey game; Weaver’s thanks to the Washington Capitals.
  • Antic vol. 7 no. 5, September 1988, news, “EA Sued” (Nat Friedland): the $7.3 million suit and Bethesda’s claim.
  • Compute!’s Gazette vol. 8 no. 5, May 1990, p. 22: Robin Antonick, “we shipped the first Apple version in 1989”.
  • Computer Gaming World issue 200, March 2001, p. 62: EA history (“Bethesda’s successful suit against EA”).
  • Retro Gamer issue 24, 2006, p. 65: Trip Hawkins interview, citing Antic and giving Hawkins’s reply.
  • Computer Gaming World issue 65, November 1989: holiday buyers’ guide, Wayne Gretzky Hockey.
  • Computer Gaming World issue 88, November 1991: review of The Terminator (designers Chris Weaver and Julian LeFay; Bethesda Softworks, Gaithersburg, MD).
  • Computer Gaming World issue 113, December 1993, p. 28: Arena preview (Johnny L. Wilson; Lakshman and LeFay; nine provinces).
  • Computer Gaming World issue 118, May 1994, p. 102: Arena review (Scorpia).
  • Computer Gaming World issue 124, November 1994: Delta V review (Bethesda at Rockville, MD) and the trademark notice naming Media Technology Limited.
  • Computer Gaming World issue 147, October 1996: Daggerfall preview.
  • Computer Gaming World issue 149, December 1996: Daggerfall review (Scorpia).
  • Weaver v. ZeniMax Media Inc., Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 25 May 2007 (public record): ZeniMax’s formation in 1999, the roles and shareholdings of Weaver and Altman, the end of Weaver’s contract in 2002, the $1.2 million severance claim and the reinstatement of his case. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/md-court-of-special-appeals/1343501.html
  • Computer Gaming World issue 217, August 2002, pp. 68–69: Morrowind review (Ron Dulin).
  • Edge issue 162, May 2006, p. 84: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion review.
  • Computer Gaming World issue 243, October 2004, p. 30: Bethesda to make Fallout 3.
  • Mike Fahey, “The Great Fallout Legal Battle Ends Without a Fallout MMO”, Kotaku, 9 January 2012 (web, secondary): the settlement with Interplay. https://kotaku.com/the-great-fallout-legal-battle-ends-without-a-fallout-m-5874561
  • Wikipedia, “Fallout Online” (accessed September 2026) (web, secondary): Bethesda’s suit in 2009 and the settlement of January 2012. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_Online
  • Bas Smits, Game Engine White Papers: Commander Keen (v1.0): id Software acquired by ZeniMax Media on 24 June 2009.
  • Edge issue 235, Christmas 2011, pp. 100–102: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim review.
  • Wireframe issue 43, September 2020, p. 19: Microsoft’s agreement to buy ZeniMax for $7.5 billion.
  • Wikipedia, “ZeniMax Media” (web, secondary): the purchase completed on 9 March 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZeniMax_Media
  • Wikipedia, “Bethesda Softworks” (accessed September 2026) (web, secondary): founding date as a division of Media Technology Limited; Bethesda Game Studios; Starfield as the studio’s first new intellectual property in over 25 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethesda_Softworks
  • Bethesda Softworks, “Starfield Launches on PlayStation 5 on April 7”, bethesda.net, 2026 (web). https://bethesda.net/en/game/starfield/article/5EB9OYuO9DdP4lna0jkyMz/starfield-launches-on-playstation-5-on-april-7
  • “Starfield is coming to PlayStation 5 on April 7”, PlayStation Blog, 17 March 2026 (web). https://blog.playstation.com/2026/03/17/starfield-is-coming-to-playstation-5-on-april-7/

See also

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