Elder Scrolls publisher, Bethesda Softworks, announced its expansion into the Asia Pacific this week with a new office based in Sydney, Australia.
The publishing office, Zenimax Australia Pty Ltd, will handle sales, distribution and marketing for Bethesda properties across Australia and New Zealand, adding to the company’s other overseas operations in Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Bethesda also announced that Zenimax Australia will be headed by Managing Director Simon Alty, who previously directed the One to Another marketing company involved in launching The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim back in 2011.
"Simon’s experience and expertise in the games industry – specifically having worked on sales and marketing of Bethesda’s titles the last four years – will be of great value as we open a publishing office in Sydney," said Sean Brennan, Managing Director of ZeniMax Europe Ltd.
The announcement doesn’t bring with it a new development studio, though it marks a sensible time for Bethesda to expand its operations given the publisher has a number of key titles on the way, including The Elder Scrolls: Online, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and The Evil Within.
In saying that, Australia’s strict rating system has given Bethesda some headaches in the past. Fallout fans may remember a censored version of Fallout: New Vegas, which addressed concerns of drug use by renaming the chem Morphine to Med-X.
Most recently, the Australian games industry refused classification of Saints Row IV for the in-game use of an alien probe weapon.
via press release