Update: Bethesda was so indie when the Elder Scrolls launched that the devs packaged and shipped the RPG themselves: "We were in the loading dock and we learned how to assemble boxes, inserts and use the heat gun"

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Subscribe to our newsletter Today, Bethesda is one of the biggest game studios in the world, responsible for some of the most notable franchises in the industry, but things were much different back in the '90s.

Then, Bethesda was a much smaller studio not far off from today's indie outfits, but unlike modern indie devs, they didn't have the benefit of digital distribution.

No, the folks who made The Elder Scrolls: Arena had to go straight from making the game to packaging and shipping the thing themselves."We had a great team of hardworking developers who truly put in their best effort," according to Vijay Lakshman, lead designer of that first Elder Scrolls title.

As he explained in an interview for the January 2014 issue of GamesTM, "No one wore only one hat, and we were all familiar with what everyone did."That extended to the process of actually shipping the RPG to stores.

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"We even spent time shrink-wrapping the games ourselves, as Bethesda was the publisher and developer," Lakshman explained.

"We were in the loading dock and we learned how to assemble boxes, inserts and use the heat gun ## Editor's Note The gaming community will surely have mixed reactions to this news. Source: [GamesRadar+](https://www.gamesradar.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/bethesda-was-so-indie-when-the-elder-scrolls-launched-that-the-devs-packaged-and-shipped-the-rpg-themselves-we-were-in-the-loading-dock-and-we-learned-how-to-assemble-boxes-inserts-and-use-the-heat-gun/)