A Bethesda Game Studios job listing confirms that the Fallout and Elder Scrolls developer is working on a "bleeding-edge AAA freemium" game. The job listing, which is for a Game Performance Manager, is located at Bethesda's new Montreal studio which was founded in 2015. Expectations for the job include "monetization design" and "business model recommendations," which should both provide some idea of just what direction Bethesda's moving towards in the future.

Many expected Bethesda's Montreal studio to focus mainly on mobile games. It's being run by Fallout Shelter lead Yves Lachance, and when the studio opened it was noted as a studio that would work on mobile titles. However, this job listing definitely seems to be for something larger than a mobile title. For one, mobile titles aren't typically described as "bleeding-edge" or "AAA." And perhaps more importantly, job listings for mobile games (including at Bethesda) always note that they're for mobile projects.

Here's the job listing's summary, which should provide a facet of what kind of game's being made at Bethesda Montreal:

"In this role, you will work with game team to envision, evolve, and operate monetization strategies, targeting the intersection of revenue generation goals and quality player experience. Ideally, you will have experience defining and operating online game business models, and have a deep understanding of player interactions with those models, both at the individual and community levels."

While this game may or may not be a mobile title, it's clear that it's being approached with mobile design in mind.

Speculating on what Bethesda Montreal might be working on is somewhat challenging. That's not due to lack of information or rumor – quite the contrary. If anything there's simply too much information going around to make any reasonable assumptions. E3 being next week doesn't help any. For instance, in the recent past Todd Howard has said Bethesda Game Studios has 7 ongoing projects, including Fallout 3 VR, Skyrim for Switch, and an unnamed mobile game. He's also said that the team has two big projects to finish before even considering the next major Elder Scrolls title. Is this new game one of those two big projects? Was it included with the 7 ongoing or was Montreal's work not included?

Adding rumor to the mix only muddies the waters. For instance, just in the past couple weeks Bethesda and ZeniMax have been rumored to be developing: a MOBA, an open world space epic named Starfield, Skyrim VR, and a Game of Thrones game. Obviously some rumors are more realistic than others.

It's difficult to imagine the core Bethesda Game Studios team working on anything other than full-priced, single-player, open world games. Whatever the Montreal studio is working on, it's likely somewhere between Bethesda's standard practices and ZeniMax's separate works based on Bethesda properties, like The Elder Scrolls Online and The Elder Scrolls Legends.

Expect Bethesda to make several announcements during their E3 keynote on Sunday, June 11 at 9:00pm PT, though the Montreal studio's project may or may not be there.

Source: NeoGAF