In today’s over-saturated gaming market, there are few brands that manage to stand out from the crowd and differentiate themselves by establishing a name synonymous with quality. Blizzard, Bethesda, and BioWare come to mind. When you see a title from these developers, you tend to think that it’s gonna rock. After all, each company’s track record is the best indication of what fans can expect, and considering the overwhelmingly positive contributions these companies have consistently delivered to gaming, it’s easy to see why folks expect more from these brands.

That said, I’m pretty surprised at how Bethesda is throwing around its name. Franchises like Elder Scrolls and now Fallout have firmly established Bethesda as one of the most highly regarded pubs/devs in the biz. Releasing a new iteration in each of these core franchises and supporting it with a consistent flow of quality DLC seems like a pretty good business model to me. So why is it then that the higher ups at Bethesda feel the need to slap their name on unestablished brands with upcoming releases such as A2M’s WET and Splash Damage’s Brink? Don’t get me wrong, I had the chance to check out both of these titles recently at E3 and it’s not like they’re complete garbage, but they’re just not the type of title most gamers would associate with Bethesda. Wouldn’t the wiser thing be to establish a publishing label, perhaps somehow associated with “Bethesda” (like BethSoft Publishing), but not the name outright, to test these new IPs with? I believe these new titles will be immediately scrutinized for carrying the Bethesda name and thusly fall prey to harsh, and maybe undeserved criticism. It just doesn’t make a whole lotta sense.

Look, I know it’s a business and people have to make a buck. Perhaps the suits at Bethesda look around the industry and feel that the publishing biz is a lucrative and worth-while venture to embark on. They might be right, but attaching such a quality name to unproven products takes away from the pedigree associated with the brand. A pedigree many years in the making and far more valuable than shots in the dark with potentially damaging titles.

Of course, only time will tell how this pans out, but let’s just hope Bethesda manages these projects and its brand well…There are already too few companies we can count on for quality.