After the universal success of Fallout 3, it seems RPG giant Bethesda is gearing up to enter the iPhone fray.

The news was announced by Fallout 3 executive producer Todd Howard at the New York Comic Con that Bethesda’s next project is to be an iPhone game.

Details went no further, unfortunately, but judging by the usual scope of Bethesda’s PC and console games we’d guess it’s unlikely to be the Fallout conversion that’s rumoured.

At least, not as a direct port, though other large game companies have dabbled in extracting a few core elements from large franchise and concentrating them into mobile conversions, so at this point it seems anything’s possible.

Bethesda has brought The Elder Scrolls Travels to the mobile and N-Gage platforms (though it struggled to impress), and there were strong rumours of a PSP Oblivion, so there’s a strong possibility it might continue with the franchise it’s had some experience in porting to handheld systems.

It’s unlikely to be a coincidence that this news was announced in the wake of Apple’s new App Store pricing tier (which was revealed right here on PocketGamer.biz), so it’s a reasonable assumption that the company’s first title will come out at the premium price range.

Whatever the game turns out to be, it’s hugely important news that such a serious developer is turning its attentions toward the iPhone - a move that will force Bethesda’s competition to re-evaluate its opinions on Apple’s new gaming platform.