Creation Engine

Creation Engine is Bethesda Game Studios’ engine for Skyrim, Fallout 4, Fallout 76 and, as Creation Engine 2, Starfield. Bethesda forked it from the Gamebryo code it had used for Fallout 3.

History

Bethesda built Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3 on Gamebryo before deciding the engine was too outdated. The Creation Engine debuted with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in November 2011. Fallout 4 (2015) added a physically based deferred renderer, volumetric lighting built with Nvidia and more detailed character creation. Fallout 76 (2018) brought new rendering, lighting and landscape technology, and BattleCry Studios, now Bethesda Game Studios Austin, reworked the engine’s single-player core for multiplayer.

In November 2020 Todd Howard said the studio was rebuilding the engine for its next games, and in June 2021 Bethesda revealed Creation Engine 2 for Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI. On 18 February 2026 Howard said The Elder Scrolls VI will run on Creation Engine 3.

Games made with Creation Engine

9 games, oldest first. Each game links to the article that names its engine.

At a glance

Developer

Bethesda Game Studios

First game

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)

Based on

Gamebryo

Versions

Creation Engine 2 (Starfield, 2023); Creation Engine 3 announced

Licence

In-house, Bethesda only

Status

Active

Sources

Checked November 3, 2026.

1. Creation Engine — Wikipedia
2. Gamebryo — Wikipedia

Image credits

• Creation Engine logo — Bethesda Game Studios. Trademark of ZeniMax Media. Placed on a white square and converted to WebP