Prime TV's hit adaptation of Fallout is obviously the result of a collaboration between Amazon and Bethesda, the company holding the rights to the IP, but according to Bruce Nesmith, a former veteran of the studio who left in 2021, the money Bethesda makes from the TV show pales in comparison to what it earns from highly successful games like Skyrim.
"What you have to realize about things like the Fallout TV show is that they don't make Bethesda money directly," Nesmith told Press Box PR. "I would be shocked if Bethesda is making any money that they care about really, not when you make literally billions of dollars on Skyrim. What you're going to make by licensing the IP to this TV show is just peanuts."
So, why license out the rights to a beloved IP if you aren't making any substantial money directly? Well, the obvious benefit for Bethesda is the explosion of interest in that IP should an adaptation be successful, which the Fallout TV show has proven to be.
"What it gets you is notoriety. It's marketing. Do they really need marketing for Elder Scrolls 6?," Nesmith pondered. The answer is probably not, but it's also hard not to notice things like the entire Fallout game series being heavily discounted just as the TV show's highly acclaimed second season is wrapping up, for instance. Seems like a symbiotic relationship even if Amazon isn't directly sharing profits with Bethesda.
In other news, Elder Scrolls 6 will "most definitely" have more trees than Skyrim, according to Todd Howard himself.
