Bethesda parent company ZeniMax has filed a trademark for an intriguing sounding new game called Deathloop – though what exactly it is remains to be seen right now.
The goods and services description in the trademark application suggests the mysterious new game could very well be an online-enabled title for mobile devices, but there isn’t anything more to go on beyond that.
You might remember that ZeniMax trademarked Starfield way back in 2013, and Bethesda didn’t officially reveal that game as one of their next big projects until 2018, so we could be waiting a while before we learn anything concrete about Deathloop.
A new mobile game from Bethesda would make a lot of sense, given that the studio has allocated a lot more time and resources into developing such titles ever since Fallout Shelter proved to be such a massive hit.
So, besides being the name of a mysterious ZeniMax trademark and an inevitable title for a future episode of Black Mirror, is a “death loop” an actual thing? Yes, as it turns out.
A death loop occurs in video games when a player saves in a situation they can’t get out of without dying, with death bringing them back to the save they made right before they died… meaning they’re stuck in an infinite loop of sticky ends.
Funnily enough, that actually happened to me when I foolishly saved at the very end of Betheda’s own Fallout 3. If I were a betting man, I’d say Bethesda will be taking this concept and running with it in a (hopefully) interesting way with Deathloop.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.