Bethesda Softworks - Elder Scrolls 5: "No Current Plans"

Originally Posted by Grandor Dragon
I would not play an Elder scrolls MMORPG, but I have to say that of all the single player series out there, Elder Scrolls is perhaps the one best suited for such an endeavor. Being able to solve quests indepentent from the main quest, respawning treasure and creatures, different guilds, each with a series of minor quests and each with a career ladder. all these mechanics are very close to MMORPG's already.

Precisely - they always set out to be virtual/sandbox worlds.

I'd love an Elder Scrolls MMO as an additional game to play alongside single player games, but I don't have the time or money for a monthly subscription model.

You're lucky, these days MMO start to shy away from the subscription in favour of other options, so who know, an TES MMO could go that way.

It surprises me.

Once Elder Scrolls 4 was released, I thought they would at least have a small team starting development on the sequel. It seems like a safe game to make and reliable revenue.

If Fallout 3 had flopped, there is reassurance in having an established franchise to immediately fall back upon.

Maybe if they made a lot of money from Fallout 3, they feel they can take the risk in launching new franchises and return to Elder Scrolls in the future, It will be interesting to see what direction they take.

strange, i've read previous statements from them saying that they're working on it so i've been really looking forward to it

very disapointing that they're now saying they have no plans.

Maybe a return to the elder scrolls adventures format? Something more along the shooter / action RPG lines like Battlespire or redgurad?

I think they're just keeping everything quiet and trying out a new marketing strategy.

Afterall we knew about Fallout 3 in the same year as Oblivion was announced. Buying the IP forced their hands in announcing it (otherwise a trademark search would have brought it to light). If it they had a choice they would have announced Fallout in 2007.

Since they are also more focussed on being a publisher, they have more eggs in their basket and might not want to overshadow the things they are focussing (their publicity) on in the following years (mainly Brink and New Vegas).

I'm guessing they will have an announcement somewhere in 2010 with a release in 2011.

Besides, can you trust anything anyone says at face value these days?

My guess would be that they're dropping the "5" - using numerals for sequels has been out of fashion for ages…. perhaps they do have plans for "Elder Scrolls: The Foozle of Blah" instead of "Elder Scrolls 5".

So simple marketing double-speak. Taken literally what he says is true, it generates loads of discussion and speculation and lets them carry on doing exactly what we've suspected they'd do anyway.

Or maybe they're doing a Bioware - deny having any plans for e.g. a PC port of Mass Effect and then turn around a few days later when they're ready and tell us how they;ve been working on it for ages….

It's 100% self-evident that a company like Bethesda will want to keep on doing a series like Elderscrolls. It's an absolutely sure-fire way to earn lots of cash - and they don't need much innovation.

The Editor over at GameGuru Mania seems quite sure that Besthesda is indeed working on an Elder Scrolls MMO.

http://www.ggmania.com/?smsid=27649

A TES MMO would suck. Imagine me, as a newbie walking in this nice neighborhood with cute little rabbits, when suddenly a huge troll pops and kills me. Happens that a high level character logged in in the same area and the creatures level-scaled … ouch!

I could not imagine playing any TES mmo for years or months even. They would have to water down the quests to make them last longer and add massive amounts of grind to the levelling to stop people from achieving bests stats in few weeks of play.

After few months all the quests would be finished and people would just do somkind of deathmatch pvp and camp hot spots for uber-eq. Life is too short and valuable for that kind of gaming imho.

Two worlds actually has "mini"-mmo included into it. It has no subscription and its more like diabloesque experience. I havent tried it though because it doesnt seem to offer much over sp except break the immersion.

If Bethesda wants to make a mmo they really need to invent somthing new that will make the game last (or then just do TES theme park aka wow-clone). Simply glueing TES together with MMO would not work in the long term imho.

Originally Posted by zakhal
If Bethesda wants to make a mmo they really need to invent somthing new that will make the game last (or then just do TES theme park aka wow-clone). Simply glueing TES together with MMO would not work in the long term imho.

I don't think anyone could ever conceive of just glueing on MMO to a game. For me, TES is always about the virtual world - that already lends itself to MMO because to some extent if you create a believable world then roleplayers will enjoy just existing in that world and acting out the role of their characters. TES is just about the only game that lets you do that in single player.

I'll agree with the doublespeak group. "No current plans", probably means just that. They have no plans for Elder Scrolls in the immediate future. It doesn't mean that the game isn't being built, it's just not being built for the current marketing cycle, so they're not talking about it. I'm almost sure another TES game is being built, outside of the MMO. Time will tell, as it always does.