Bethesda's games are often hailed as great products (buggy though they sometimes / often may be), and yes, we're all waiting with bated breath for more information about The Elder Scrolls 6. But games are not the greatest thing the studio does. That honor, according to studio lead Todd Howard, is Bethesda's work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Howard espoused the virtues of Bethesda's charity work during an interview with Geoff Keighley at Gamelab Barcelona. "We have had a lot of [Make-A-Wish kids] wish to come to our studio," Howard said. "That's a good - like, you want a reality check at work; you're doing your day-to-day and then a family comes in with their child. They can wish for anything and they've come to your studio because they want to see how you make their favorite game and they want to play it. And it is by far the greatest thing that we do."
Don't expect a bunch of heartwarming stories about visits to pop up on the nightly news, though. Howard said that Bethesda and Make-A-Wish's partnership is more quiet than that.
"We don't talk about it a lot. I am now, but it's a very private thing. The one takeaway is that the family - because they always come in with their family, obviously - they think it's just a fun 'this is what my child wants to do,' but then they see this operation, we have hundreds of people and what we're doing and how passionate we are, and they have this new connection... they leave with this new connection with their child and it is... it's seriously magical. It's the greatest thing we do."
While Gamelab took place in June, Howard and Keighley's talk was only just recently made available to the public. If you want to listen to the whole talk, video is below, with Howard's remarks regarding the Make-A-Wish Foundation starting at about 27:40.
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