Bethesda announces the creation of Battlecry Studios; working on a Free-To-Play Online Game


Bethesda has announced that it has established a new studio in Austin, Texas called Battlecry Studios. Battlecry is led by Rich Vogel who was the executive producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic. According to the press release, Rich has a long history in the industry having worked on Ultima Online, and Star Wars Galaxies as well as other online and console titles during his 20+ years in game development. What’s more interesting here though, is that – according to the available job listings for this new studio – Battlecry Studios seems to be working on a free-to-play online game for current-generation platforms.
Battlecry Studios’ Lead Designer is required to have strong passion for games and excellent knowledge of FPS’s and RPG’s. Not only that, but ‘online design experience’ and ‘console experience for PS3 and Xbox 360’ will be considered as pluses.
The Monetization Designer, on the other hand, is required to have knowledge of the monetization of free-to-play games, which obviously suggests that Battlecry Studios will be developing a free-to-play title.
In addition, the Platform Lead will help to build and manage the micro-transaction platform technology for Battlecry Studios’ online game. And, we all know that free-to-play games are built around micro-transactions.
It remains now to be seen whether this will be a Fallout MMO game (as Zenimax is already working on an Elder Scrolls MMO title) or a new IP franchise.