There's competition to be the next big video game maker.
Bethesda Softworks, the company behind some of the most popular video game franchises in the world, is launching a specialized social network connecting game players together to compete and discuss its games, as well as share modifications they'd made, such as custom multiplayer maps.
The new software, called Bethesda.net, is similar to efforts by other major game makers such as Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard and Valve, whose social networks have helped to expand their influence.
"It will be at the heart of all our games going forward," said Pete Hines, head of public relations and marketing at Bethesda.
The new announcement is part of a larger effort by the video game maker to elevate its position within the industry. The company's major presentation kicked off E3 in Los Angeles, the largest showcase event in the video game industry.
The game maker discussed new instalments for some of its top games, including the first-person shooter Doom and the post-apocalyptic adventure game Fallout 4. The games, first released in 1993 and 1997 respectively, have become some of the most influential in gaming. Doom's last instalment was released in 2004, and Fallout's in 2010.
For Fallout 4, six years in the making, the company said it had created intricately detailed new features to help make the latest instalment more immersive and fun. The open-world roleplaying games, set in the United States after a series of nuclear blasts nearly wipe out the population, are among the most popular in the industry. The newest title in the series will launch November 10, 2015.For Doom, the company discussed new ways for gamers to create their own levels to play with one another. The company said its new feature, called Snapmap, makes it easy to create levels and change the way monsters in the game interact with one another and the players.
One of the newest features of the new game is how it begins. Bethesda said that, rather than the traditional opening on the ruined Wasteland, the game begins in the world that existed before the bombs fell in Boston, Mass.
Todd Howard, head of the team that made the game, said the company built the game to allow players to choose however they want to progress, exploring the game's world to whatever degree they like. They can also build villages or use parts from various toys or tools they find to create up to 700 different types of weapons.
"Player freedom remains our absolute number one goal," he said. "We like to fill our worlds with thousands of items so you can interact with them, and now they have purpose."
Following a trend in the industry, Bethesda also announced a companion smartphone game with Fallout: a fully functional in-game inventory management system players can use on their phone while wandering the Wasteland.
As part of the marketing effort for Fallout, Bethesda also built a separate game for tablets and smartphones meant for managing the fallout shelters that the game's protagonists live in. "The goal of this game was to do something we want to do on our phones," Howard said. It's being released for free on Apple and Google-powered devices Sunday, he said.
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