MARCH 15, 2011 • ZeniMax Media Inc. has been on the acquisition hunt in recent years. To support that growth, ZeniMax Online Studios will open a customer support center in Galway, Ireland. The new facility will provide customer support for players of  future massively multiplayer online games.

Impact: ZeniMax is the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, publisher of hit RPG franchises Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. Bethesda is in a class of its own in the non-Asian console RPG market, with sales greater than games from EA’s Bioware in recent years, competing with the latter’s successful Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises.  Like Bioware, Zenimax also has major MMO efforts in the works.  The CSS in Galway signals that Bethesda’s Fallout MMO, currently accepting beta applications, is making significant progress towards completion though no release date has been announced and will likely not be ready until late 2012 at the earliest.  An MMO based on The Elder Scrolls is also possible, however that franchise’s current focus is on the upcoming release of ES V: Skyrim slated for Nov 2011.