Bethesda drops Gamebryo in next Elder Scrolls

Developer Bethesda Softworks has decided against licensing the Gamebryo engine for its next Elder Scrolls title, the company has revealed.

A community manager for the company said the next Elder Scrolls title, suffixed Skyrim, uses “a new graphics engine built internally”.

Such a decision – likely to have been made earlier in the year – left the Gamebryo vendor, Emergent, without a significant customer.

Last month Emergent put Gamebryo’s tech up for sale.

Bethesda’s 2006 title, Oblivion, was the first game created for Xbox using the Gamebryo engine. That began a partnership where Bethesda used the tech in its second major 360 title, Fallout 3.

Since then, however, Bethesda has been granted exclusive access to technology built and maintained by John Carmack’s Id Software.

It is not confirmed, but likely, that Bethesda has solicited Id Software’s technology or company know-how for its own internal engine.

Both Bethesda and Id Software are owned by Zenimax media, after the latter was purchased in July 2009.

It was recently revealed that Id Software’s latest engine –Id Tech 5 – would be exclusive to Zenimax-owned studios (Splash Damage being the sole exception).

Thus far only two engines have been revealed as using Id Tech 5; Doom 4 and Rage.