Bethesda Softworks, the steward of The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and an expanding lineup of game studios, has announced that it will hold a conference of its own at this year’s E3 trade show. It will take place on June 14, the Sunday before E3 week, somewhere in Hollywood (a specific venue was not named). The company has showcased its wares at big pre-E3 media bonanzas before (giving the first public demo of Fallout 3 at Microsoft’s 2008 pre-show show), but this is the first time it will be hosting a conference of its own.
The glorified statement of intent also made no mention of what to expect at the showcase, but given how tightlipped Bethesda has been about its current projects, a dedicated media blowout makes sense. The game that’s most likely to show up has to be the Doom reboot that’s been in the works for years at Bethesda-owned id Software. The radio silence surrounding Doom was broken last year, as anyone who bought 2014’s Wolfenstein: The New Order was promised access to an early slice and a demonstration was shown to QuakeCon attendees (footage of which has miraculously never made it online). Bethesda also owns Arkane Studios, which was last heard from with 2012’s Dishonored and was at one point linked to Prey 2. That project got the axe after its existence was leaked by “press sneak fucks,” but Bethesda has expressed interest in turning Dishonored into an ongoing series.
Then there’s the long-rumored Fallout 4, which may or may not exist, may or may not be taking place in Boston, and may or may not be announced at this conference. Given the number of hoaxes, leaks, and denials spawned from the mere notion of a new Fallout, it seems just as likely that Bethesda would go through all this trouble to corral hundreds of fans, developers, and journalists into some heretofore unannounced Hollywood theater where an executive flanked by people in replica Brotherhood Of Steel power armor tells everyone, yet again, that they have nothing to say about Bethesda Game Studios’ next project.