I meant it as figure of speech, it was not an opinion about how BGS operates...
What I meant was:
It is highly improbable to announce a new AAA title while they are still not finished with their latest project..
So it was just, maybe a poorly worded allegory..
Correct and I gotcha. Yeah, with the recent turmoil over that area I just wanted to paint the entire picture because in my opinion Oblivion early DLC aside they haven't stooped to the depths that consumers are backlashing against public publisher powerhouses for currently.
And with Skyrim's success BGS's recently been auto-listed with the bunch despite no track record of such.
And as you said
While a portion of the team is on preproduction on the next project(Hypothetical Fallout 4. This would of begun after Fallout 3's launch, just as Skyrim's did after Oblivion, Morrowind's after Daggerfall, etc.)
Core people are working on DLC, in their words apparently trying to add mechanics to the world and other things more than the direct focus of "swamp tons of land space for DLC with the illusion of content."
But the giveaway there for others who think this might be FO4 is that the core team still is on Skyrim and the next project, Fallout 4/TES: Side Story/TES VI/One of Zenimax's IPs/Brand New Game and IP, is still in the "Idea/Brainstorming/Concept Art" stage and probably not with any tech demo either.
Furthermore there's the new job postings and them having to guess new console specs. Though I suspect Microsoft and Sony might give a better heads up.
With Oblivion they had to scale back the tech. I figure they thought more RAM would be in play. I'm impressed with how they crafted the Creation Kit and optimized it for the 360 and fairly well for PC.
All signs point to: Many Years Away. Figure it'll be a Microsoft Next Console Launch Title/Near Launch ala Morrowind for Xbox and Oblivion for 360.