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Rock and a hard place. They were 7ish years from their last elder scrolls release, and knew they had at least 7 (probably) for the next one. Their poor planning caused it, but the fans were so loud that they had to do something.
And what an underwhelming something. Studio could have started work on ES6 shortly after Skyrim and had another amazing game out by now, but dawdled. They were at their peak, they could have doubled the number of teams and pumped out fallout and es every other year. But they wasted their opportunity.
It’s okay. We’ll get Skyrim for the PS6.
For all the complaints over the years (from myself included), there are very few options for games like Elder Scrolls main games.
These kinds of games are extremly difficult to build. Skyrim still does things I haven’t seen any game other than Fallout 4 do since.
What things would that be? Im trying to think of something that hasnt been replicated / improved in another game, but I am drawing a blank personally.
One example: The way Bethesda games track an enormous number of physics enabled objects across their open worlds. I feel like most games in the last 10 years have made a point of simplifying their physics systems to a point of near-nonexistence.
Bethesda knows that when I dump 500 wheels of cheese on the floor of my house in Whiterun, I want it all to still be exactly where I left it when I come back 20 hours later.
good point. I still have daggers that refuse to stay in their display boxes and move around the house mysteriously, though 🙃
I prefer to suspect the radiant engine before Lydia or Ysolda (well, Serana maybe lol).
Valheim does a really great job with this. I think the closest I’ve seen in a game. The other part of this is that’s part of what makes their VR Ports so good.
Fair point. I can’t really think of any games that have done that, either. Interesting that there haven’t been more physics sandbox style open worlds, come to think of it…
The physics part isn’t even really that important, I think. It helps pile things up, but it’s not tantamount to what makes a Bethesda game.
It’s from a culmination of decisions that lead to it. To letting you pick up all these miscellaneous items. To saving where these items are stored. To letting you go anywhere you want to. And on top of all that, having a fully functional game working along side all that. It’s a freedom you don’t get in most other games. Sometimes people ask why it’s even necessary, I like to think Bethesda responds with: Why not?
Nobody else makes them because indies don’t have the resources to make them like Bethesda and AAA devs don’t have the luxury to invest in such a niche experimental and expensive genre.
That TES Online trailer trolled me so hard when I watched the showcase, I thought it was Elder Scrolls 6 and I just forgot that game existed.
Bethesda really has no incentive to actually make TES6 so long as they have healthy subscribers for TES Online, I’m not surprised at all the game has likely been put on ice until the next generation.
Fortunately Starfield looks amazing and will hopefully fill that void for most of us who want a single player experience.
I don’t buy this. TES Online and actual TES games are so fundamentally different that they do not have the same audience. There are probably millions of people who will buy TES6 but have no interest in playing an MMORPG.
ESO’s story arcs, despite being within an MMORPG, can be played single player if one is feeling particularly antisocial. There’s a ton of story quests since the game has been out for a decade now that you could probably fit the entirety (content hours wise) of the Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim quest lines into it. Probably why the game is like 100 GB lol.
Of course, as an MMO, the storyline is constrained a bit (your choices functionally don’t really matter too much) since the game world can’t change drastically, so you won’t have an Imperial/Stormcloak type showdown that forever altered the landscape.
Still, ESO scratches the Morrowind itch, especially their latest Necrom expansion.
There’s also Tamriel Rebuilt (Morrowind mod) that also has Necrom, but I haven’t had a chance to check what they’ve done recently. (Last time I installed it, Firewatch was the farthest east they’ve gone but that was a long time ago).
Lots of MMOs work that way. I’m not talking about the fact that the game is multiplayer, I’m talking about the fact that the core gameplay does not offer the same uniquely immersive experience currently only found in single player Bethesda games like Skyrim or Fallout 4.
When it actually releases I’m sure there will be tons of articles and news that it was rushed and is unfinished
Tbf that’s because it’ll be rushed and unfinished.
I just realised the other day, that with the common definition that retro is older than the last two generations, Skyrim’s original release is retro as it was a PS3 game originally…
Arena released in 1994.
Daggerfall 2 years later in 1996.
Morrowind in 2002, 6 years later.
Then Oblivion came in 2006, 4 years.
Skyrim was 2011, 5 years.
Now 12 years later, all we got is a 5 year old trailer and Todd once telling us they where still thinking aboht the setting.
Just let that sink in…So glad that other developers like Obsidian have stepped in to filled the Elder Scrolls and Fallout shaped holes in my chest
Honestly, the amount of time it takes AAA titles like this to launch is crazy. Buuut if that’s the price we pay for getting a finished, somewhat bug free experience, then so be it. I’d rather that that crunch leading to burnout and a product that gets rushed out to appease shareholders (stares in 2077).
Expecting a somewhat bug free experience from Bethesda… also, while games take long nowadays, 12 years isn’t a normal amount. Nor is announcing 5 years prior then never speaking of it again… Pretty sure we’re past the “modern games take a lot of time to develop” stage by now.
I highly doubt they’ve been working on it since Skyrim.
I highly doubt they’ve started working on it even now.
They probably have some sort of pre production going on where there’s a few concept artists and writers worming on it but yeah I wouldn’t expect much more than that.
Not really that surprising that we haven’t gotten much (if anything) new since. It was pretty clear that the trailer was basically just a statement of “we plan on this being a thing that exists at some point”. IIRC, we knew that it was extremely early in development and that Starfield would come first.
As a side note: I remember people theorising that it would be subtitled Redfall, since Bethesda had trademarked the name around the same time.
As a side note: I remember people theorising that it would be subtitled Redfall, since Bethesda had trademarked the name around the same time.
I also remember Todd later saying in an interview, after lot’s of speculation, that they had no idea yet for the game, basically debunking any speculation as just that.
I also thought the rumor was on trademarking “The Elder Scrolls: Redguard” or something along those lines, which is easily explained as that’s the name of an old spin-off from 1998 that they likely had to settle some stuff for. Timing spe ifically could be chance, or them figuring the announcement would bring more attention to the franchise. Besides, all game titles have been prime location. I think the word “Redfall” was a different rumour than the trademark one.
An old Twitter post suggested Highrock which also matched the trailers look. However, the next ESO chapter became Highrock and they never went back in a main game before, obviously ignoring Arena (Daggerfall was in that High Rock and Hammerfell) So it may have just been about that. An apperantly leaked internal note spoke of project Greenwood, possibly setting it in Valenwood (second most rumoured place) but that is alleged.
But then, it’s late night and it’s been quite a while since I looked into it. So I might renember it wrong as well.
In the end, Bethesda still has us talking and speculating, and has me writing 4 paragraphs, with just releasing one shitty 5 year old trailer. And that while, as I said at the start, pretty all rumours where debunked as “we don’t know yet”. Damn they got me. They still got me…
Something, something Metroid Prime 4 :(
At least Nintendo came out and said “we messed up already and need to try again” instead of “here’s a shit game, gimme AAA price for it because title.”
Talk about jumping the gun with that announcement. I’ll honestly be a bit surprised if we see the game this decade.
It’s the same situation as with Metroid Prime 4. It’s more to just confirm people that “yes we will make it at some point so stop f*ing asking. Buy Skyrim for the 5th time while you wait”
I think that’s something a lot of people don’t understand even now. For me, it was pretty clear, that was just an “of course we are making TES6 someday, stop asking,” because people were acting like the series was dead and Bethesda would never release another game. Also, nobody should expect anything before Starfall is released.
Of course, that gets lost outside the actual presentation, where this was dropped, so here we are, years later, and people think is in development hell or something. Only saying that they’ll get to TES6 eventually, without the teaser, would probably have been better.
