Senior Bethesda developer and ‘Fallout 76’ lead designer Ferret Baudoin has died

Ferret Baudoin

Ferret Baudoin, who served as the lead designer on Fallout 76, has died.

A Facebook group set up in his memory confirmed that Baudoin, who worked as a senior designer for Bethesda Softworks, died “suddenly” last weekend (October 15).

“On October 15, 2022, legendary game designer Ferret Baudoin passed,” a post in the group reads. “He is surrounded by his family and friends. He loved real life as much as games. He was a devoted husband, father, brother, and son.”

Former Fallout 76 project lead Jeff Gardiner was among those to pay tribute to Baudoin on Sunday (October 17), writing: “An eternal optimist and a dear friend. We had lunch several times since I departed Bethesda. He will be dearly missed.”

Bethesda Game Studios design director Emil Pagliarulo also paid tribute on Twitter, saying that Baudoin was “unstoppably creative, always inspired, and he worked hard because to Ferret, it wasn’t work. He LOVED making games”.

Tributes to Baudoin are also being paid by gamers in Fallout 76, while an in-person tribute will take place during a Fallout 25th anniversary cosplay gathering on October 22. The event will include charity walks in four cities to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

As PC Gamer notes, Baudoin, whose real first name was Eric, was working as a senior designer on the upcoming game Starfield at the time of his death.

As well as Fallout 76, the late designer also worked as a quest designer and writer on Fallout 4. Prior to joining Bethesda, Baudoin spent six years as a lead designer at BioWare – where he worked on Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2 and numerous DLCs – while he previously served as a lead designer on Neverwinter Nights 2 at Obsidian Entertainment.

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Sam Moore

NME