Todd Howard, Bethesda's Game Director and Executive Producer, said converting Skyrim to the Xbox One's hardware and software parameters was just an exercise that allowed him and his team to understand Microsoft's console more quickly. In order to do that, the studio made Skyrim playable on the Xbox One as a test. Instead, the Maryland-based studio opted to run some studies and compile data first, so as to find out precisely what kind of results the then next-gen consoles would be capable of yielding. While Bethesda kept communication lines open with both of the tech firms, the game development company didn't want to force the creation of Fallout 4 into existence, and risk making a poor title. During that time, developers didn't specifically know the hardware specs for the consoles on which the retro-futuristic RPG would release, but Microsoft and Sony kept the company in the loop about what was planned for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Bethesda's Todd Howard reveals Skyrim was ported to Xbox One during Fallout 4's research phase, implying its possibility of becoming backward compatible for the console.Īs many gaming fans are aware, once Bethesda had completed work on Skyrim, the studio almost immediately began planning for its next release, as learning from prior problems helped improve and create Fallout 4.

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