Bethesda chief Todd Howard has issued a rare post on Reddit, telling gamers that the developer is “constantly listening” to fans on the website. And so, unsurprisingly, fans have responded with requests.
Howard posted in the r/games subreddit in the wake of Bethesda’s announcement of its roadmap of releases over the coming years. With The Elder Scrolls 6 taking up Bethesda Game Studios’ attention, Howard confirmed Fallout 5 is now in pre-production, New Vegas developer Obsidian is working on a new Fallout game, Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters are in the works, and Starfield is still alive.
That announcement itself followed a significant round of layoffs across Xbox, which hit Bethesda and its various studios hard as new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma continues her “reset” of Microsoft’s gaming business. That reset involves doubling down on Xbox’s core franchises, and for Bethesda that means more The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, more quickly.
Howard then took the unusual step of actually posting on Reddit, calling himself a “professional lurker” who gets “great ideas” from the website. He called on fans to continue to provide feedback and post their ideas for future Bethesda games, which he may or may not take inspiration from.
Here’s the post in full:
Hey Reddit. I’m a professional lurker and read your comments all the time. Many here do and we deeply appreciate all the passion for our work. I know I don’t really post, and we’re usually very quiet. Today’s info was an attempt at changing that and letting everyone know what we’ve been working on the past several years, and a look at what’s coming. So know we’re constantly listening and keep telling us how to be even better. You’d be surprised how many great ideas I get from Reddit. So upvote your favorite and we’ll do it. Maybe.
This is Howard’s first comment on Reddit in six months. The last was to simply say “Dear Reddit, please never change,” in a thread about someone who modded Todd Howard into Fallout 4. Before that, Howard posted on Reddit three years ago to thank fans for their “passion and excitement” for Starfield. And, before that, Howard posted five years ago as part of a Reddit Ask Me Anything celebrating Skyrim’s 10th anniversary. In that AMA, Howard said he hadn’t posted on the internet in 15 years.
I don’t think this means Howard is all of a sudden going to start posting a lot in Reddit or even online generally. But, clearly, this is the start of a new era under Microsoft, one that will see a lot more Fallout, that’s for sure. It stands to reason that more communication will be needed to help get Bethesda’s vision across.
Unsurprisingly, Howard’s Reddit post was followed immediately by requests from fans, the first of which called for patches for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. “Thanks Todd. Please get Virtuous to keep patching Oblivion and give it as much love as you guys gave Skyrim, because it feels abandoned right now which is a shame,” said redditor GamerLove1.
As we reported in May, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is without a patch on PC since July 2025, and still suffers from issues that plagued it at launch, including worsening performance the more you play.
Will Oblivion Remastered eventually get some love? Oblivion Remastered, overall, seems like a big success for Bethesda, which contracted Virtuos to help remake its much-loved role-playing game using Unreal Engine 5. It’s seen over 9 million players, and Howard himself told IGN in December that the studio was “really, really pleased with how well it did.” So it seems somewhat odd that the game hasn’t seen an update in so long. Oblivion Remastered launches for the Nintendo Switch 2 on August 11, 2026, so perhaps we’ll see a big update for all versions then.
Meanwhile, Bethesda has said that while it won’t host a traditional Fallout Day broadcast this year, it’s planning something special for Fallout’s 30th anniversary in 2027, when Fallout Day will be celebrated live in Washington, D.C. Also next year, Bethesda plans to release a major Fallout 76 expansion called Raven Rock, which acts as a prequel story to Fallout 3.
Photo by Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/WireImage.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
