Todd Howard

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**Todd Howard** (born Template:Birth based on age as of date) is an American video game designer, director, and producer. He serves as director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the development of the *Fallout* and *The Elder Scrolls* series.

## Early life

Todd Howard was born in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania. He has an elder brother, Jeff. He developed an interest in computers, particularly video games, at a very young age. Howard considers the 1980s role-playing video games *Wizardry* and *Ultima III: Exodus* to be inspirations for his future games. He is a 1989 graduate of Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. In 1993, he graduated from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, with a major in finance/business, despite his desire to create video games, later saying that "it seemed like the easiest path to get through college".

After obtaining *Wayne Gretzky Hockey* (1988), during the holiday break of his senior year in college, Howard visited the offices of the game's developer, Bethesda Softworks, which he passed by daily on his commute to and from school. He asked for a job at the company but was rejected and told that he needed to finish school as a prerequisite. After graduating, he went back to Bethesda for a job but was rejected again due to a lack of job opportunities at the time. Instead, Howard started working for a smaller game company in Yorktown, Virginia, which enabled him to visit several conventions like the Consumer Electronics Show, where he continued approaching Bethesda to request being hired.

## Career

Howard was eventually recruited by Bethesda Softworks in 1994, originally as a producer. His first game development credit for Bethesda was as producer and designer of *The Terminator: Future Shock* (1995), followed by work as a designer on *SkyNET* and *The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall*, both released in 1996. He was project leader for the first time on *The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard*, released in 1998.

In 2000, Howard was appointed project leader and designer for *The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind* and the expansions that followed. The game was released in 2002 and was a critical and commercial success, winning several Game of the Year awards. He then led the creation of *The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion* (2006) as its executive producer. After this, he served as game director and executive producer of *Fallout 3*, released in 2008.

Howard returned to *The Elder Scrolls* series to lead the development as the creative director of its fifth installment, *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim*, which was released in November 2011. He subsequently directed *Fallout 4*, released in November 2015, and *Fallout 76*, a multiplayer installment in the series that attracted criticism upon its release in November 2018.

## Opinions and recognition

 File:Todd Howard, Gamelab 2018 (41230874350).jpg  Regarding his own views on video games, Howard admitted in 2011 that *The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion* had sacrificed what made *The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind* "particular", saying: "With *Oblivion*, we're dealing with the capital province, and we wanted to get back to the more classic *Arena* and *Daggerfall* feel of a fantasy world that felt more refined and welcoming. But in that, we sacrificed some of what made *Morrowind* special: the wonder of discovery." He said Bethesda's philosophy for *The Elder Scrolls* games was to allow people to "live another life, in another world".

In 2012, Howard also said he was favorable to modding in video games, claiming he did not understand why many developers do not allow it. In 2016, after the release of *Fallout 4*, Howard admitted that he was well aware of the criticisms received by the game, especially with regards to the dialogue system, saying: "The way we did some dialogue stuff [in Fallout 4], that didn't work as well. But I know the reasons we tried that – to make a nice interactive conversation – but [it was] less successful than some other things in the game."

Howard has been a frequent speaker at industry events and conferences. He spoke to developers at the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit, sharing his rules of game development. He returned as a keynote speaker at the 2012 D.I.C.E. Summit. He said developers should ignore demographics and installed base, and follow their passions, saying that "if install base really mattered, we'd all make board games, because there are a lot of tables".

Howard's work has often received attention by the generalist media and press; his games have been featured in *Newsweek*, CNN, *USA Today*, and *The Today Show*. The high popularity of the games Howard has directed and produced has turned him, and some of his quotes, into Internet memes.

Howard was the 16th recipient of a Game Developers Conference Lifetime Achievement Award. The magazine *GamePro* named him among the "Top 20 Most Influential People in Gaming over the Last 20 Years". Howard also received the D.I.C.E. Award for "Best Game Director" in 2012 and 2016. In 2014, he was awarded the Lara of Honor, a lifetime achievement award from Germany. In 2013, *IGN* listed Howard 70th in a ranking of "The Top 100 Game Creators of All Time". He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in 2017.

## External links

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1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Callahan, Marion (October 28, 2008). THE BROTHERS HOWARD \*\*Valley natives have action-packed careers with fairy tale endings..
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Hanson, Ben (January 13, 2011). Road To Skyrim: The Todd Howard Interview.
3. ↑ Takashi, Dean (July 4, 2018). Skyrim director Todd Howard: Why triple-A games are better when you don't play it safe. *VentureBeat*. Retrieved on July 30, 2019.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kane, Alex (March 27, 2019). Morrowind: An oral history. *Polygon*. Retrieved on July 30, 2019.
5. ↑ Oblivion to Feature Soundtrack by Jeremy Soule. *GameSpot*. CBS Interactive (October 21, 2005).
6. ↑ Remo, Chris (October 13, 2008). Falling Into *Fallout 3*: Director Todd Howard Talks Scope And Evolution.
7. ↑ Gamespot Staff (August 2, 2007). Fallout 3 Q&A – E3 Thoughts and More.
8. ↑ Senior, Tom (March 11, 2011). Bethesda's Todd Howard: "Oblivion sacrificed what made Morrowind special". *PCGamer*. Retrieved on July 30, 2019.
9. ↑ Hussain, Tamoor (June 3, 2015). Fallout 4 Officially Confirmed for PC, Xbox One, PS4.
10. ↑ Avard, Alex (June 3, 2019). Todd Howard admits criticism of Fallout 76 was "well deserved". *GamesRadar+*. Retrieved on July 30, 2019.
11. ↑ Bethesda: Oblivion "sacrificed what made Morrowind special" (March 10, 2011). Archived from the original on March 12, 2011. Retrieved on August 3, 2019.
12. ↑ Howard, Todd. The RPG for the Next Generation.
13. ↑ Todd Howard: Mods "make your game better", more companies should allow them (March 1, 2012). Retrieved on August 3, 2019.
14. ↑ Todd Howard acknowledges criticism of dialogue in Fallout 4 (June 16, 2019). Retrieved on August 3, 2019.
15. ↑ Totilo, Stephen (February 20, 2009). DICE 2009: The Following Colorful Wisdom Is From Todd Howard.
16. ↑ Mihoerck, Dan (February 8, 2012). Todd Howard D.I.C.E. 2012 Opening Keynote Address.
17. ↑ Remo, Chris (February 20, 2009). DICE 09: Bethesda's Howard On Supreme Playability.
18. ↑ Whalen, Andrew (June 13, 2019). Todd Howard Says 'Starfield' Is a Realistic Extrapolation of Today's Cutting-Edge Space Exploration Technology. *Newsweek*. Retrieved on July 30, 2019.
19. ↑ Frum, Larry (November 10, 2011). Review: 'The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim' brings fantasy world to life. *CNN*. Retrieved on July 30, 2019.
20. ↑ Molina, Brett (June 15, 2015). 'Fallout 4' launching Nov. 10. *USA Today*. Retrieved on July 30, 2019.
21. ↑ Benedetti, Winda (November 11, 2011). Five tips for getting the most out of 'Skyrim'. *Today*. Retrieved on July 30, 2019.
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 Todd Howard to Be Inducted Into the Aias Hall of Fame at the 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Ceremony (December 14, 2016).
23. ↑ Top 100 Game Creators – Todd Howard.