I hope they just release TES 5 before TES the MMO

Probably not.

I still think TES V will come out before any ZeniMax Online MMO.

Like was already mentioned, the MMO was delayed. They apparently planned to release it pretty recently. TES V hasn't even been hinted at official. The MMO is much more likely to release before we even get to see much of TES V, or if we even see any of it at all before it releases.

They are two separate developers and I doubt TES V development was delayed just because ZeniMax Online's MMO was delayed. And there was nothing 'official' about the MMO either...just a leak from a lawsuit.

Ha ha, you should have seen the forums for LOTRO before that came out.

You classify these boards as drooling, raving lunatics who would happily tear anything at all to pieces. I can't disagree with you. :drool:

But the LOTR fans... :chaos:
They are the evil masterminds to the rabid, stupid orc minions of just about any other fanbase. They collectively knew more lore about Lord of the Rings than J.R.R. and Christopher Tolkien ever did combined (and they're the guys that wrote the stuff). They would have arguments about how tall, to exacting specifications, a Balroc was; or where precisely the Mithral for Minas Tirith's new gates was mined from. The sheer, calculating insanity was a genuinely interesting thing to watch; because while I am thankful that the internet can not transmit physical violence those boards used some sort of dark magic to transmit sheer insanity to anyone reading them for too long.

Nobody said TESV was delayed. The MMO was supposed to be officially revealed in 2009, but was delayed. Meaning that it's likely that it will come out in 2010. TESV has only been worked on since late 2008, so I really doubt TESV will come out before the MMO, considering Bethesda games take 3-4 years to be developed.

Edit: Lots of typos...

Where did you come up with TES V only being worked on since late 2008? Bethesda has two separate development teams and it's doubtful no one was working on the TES V until late 2008.

Have you read the first post? Instead of explaining it again, I'll quote it:



They may have been doing pre-production before Fallout 3 was released, but they didn't start focusing on it until after Fallout 3 was released.

That basically says they tweaked the existing engine. That doesn't mean TES V hasn't been in development prior to that. And the fact they are using essentially the same engine is good news for those of use that want the game sooner than later.

They've been re-doing a large part of their basic technology. If they're still changing large parts of their engine, they likely aren't very far in the development process.

Regardless, I've debated with people about this waaay to much already. Believe what you want.

They've had a team working on TES V pre-production before they even tweaked the existing engine. And the fact they are using the existing engine helps the sooner than later argument. What used to take 3-4 years is cut way back because they are so familiar with the engine.

Notice that he says that the "whole time" had been spent upgrading the engine. That definitely sounds as if they'd put a lot of their team to updating the engine rather than making the game. Sure there may be a small part of the team working on the game, but it most likely is not in full production.

Well at least we know that when TES:V finally comes out, its engine will be significantly optimized and improved. The improvement from Oblivion to Fallout 3 was good, but I think we can expect an even bigger leap in TES:V.

Ugh, I need to learn to stay out of a debate. Oh well.





This, and

They've been using Gamebryo for a very long time, for Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3. Yet all of those games took 3-4 years to develop. Being familiar with the engine does not magically cut a year off of the development time.

Oblivion and Fallout 3 used the same version of the engine. It sounds like TES V will used an improved version of the Oblivion/Fallout 3 engine.

And pre-production started at least a year before the engine was ready. They don't wait to start a game the day the tweaks for the engine have been finished. That year of pre-production is always counted as part of the 3-4 year total production.

With a late 2007 pre-production start date and TES V being their main focus since late 2008....makes a late 2010 release date plausible.

I really doubt they were in pre-production that long. I personally think that a 2010 announcement is possible, but a 2010 release date is very very unlikely. One bit of evidence is the fact that after Bethesda announces their games, they develop them for at least another year before releasing them. It is really impossible for it to be announced in 2010, because Bethesda didn't announce it in 2009.

Morrowind announcement- Morrowind release: 25 months

Oblivion announcement- Oblivion release: 18 months

Fallout 3 had a 4 year announcement/release period, but that doesn't count because it was unofficially "announced" in 2004 when the Fallout license was bought. Unless Bethesda magically changes their ways, we wont be seeing TESV in 2010.

Actually pre-production in the past did take roughly a year if you go back and read quotes about pre-production of past games. Maybe only 5-10% of Bethesda was working on it in 2007 but it was being worked on.

One reason not to announce TES V as early as you would predict is what happened with Oblivion. It was announced too early, too many promises were made (and of course broken) and in the end many people were unhappy. Had they just announced the game 7-8 months prior to its release none of that would have happened.

A Feb./March announcement would make sense if this is the strategy. The 2nd ES novel comes out right around then also.

Wait wait wait. You just said you think it will be released in 2010, but now you're lecturing me on how it being announced in 2010 is a bad idea. Oy vey...

An announcement in late 2010 (notice I never said early 2010) would be just fine, because it would take them a year or more to release the game, in 2011-2012. Hence it will not be delayed by the MMO.

No. I'm saying it could not only be announced in 2010 but also released. And the MMO would have no impact whatsoever.

There has not been enough development time for TES V. It's impossible. If Fallout 3 hadn't existed, then TES V could be a quality game ready for release this year. However, Fallout 3 took up two years of production time from TES V. Two years are not enough to make a quality Elder Scrolls game. I would gladly wait until 2011 or even 2012 for TES V to be released if it means it will be amazing and not rushed.

I really don't see a 2010 release happening; and frankly, I don't want one because that would mean a truncated development.

Why are we debating as if pre-production/planning and engine revamping are mutually exclusive and can't happen simultaneously? Both aspects involve different people (designers and programmers). I am certain that pre-production began on the next game (whatever it is) shortly before FO3 went gold. Full production, meaning most/all of the team, began in 2008 as Todd mentioned.

As far as the MMO affecting the release... Yes, they are somewhat independent companies, but they still take direction from Zenimax, and as such they would have to be pretty lousy to not coordinate release dates so as to not compete with one another. Therefore, if the MMO is TES-related AND being announced/released this year, then I highly doubt we'll also see TES:V announced this year because it would create too much confusion and detract from one another.

The argument that MMOs and single-player games appeal to different audiences is an unsubstantiated claim that I find suspect. There may be a distinction between audiences, but I would be much surprised to not observe significant if not dominant overlap between them.

EDIT: typos

Why does everyone have this mentality? Think about the entire team they have! Everyone has a different job to fulfill so everyone else is still at work, storyboard directors, world artists, the people who handle the music. How do you think this stuff gets done? And assuming that their computers don't melt down like last time, :brokencomputer: then maybe we can get it out from late late 2010 to early 2011.

I really hope it'd be pre- all the elder scrolls games. That would be very interesting. Lots of conflicts and factions. Less of that oblivion portal [censored]. Though maybe -some- chances to visit some daedric planes, but not likely. Imagine being able to join the sixth house, the houses in Morrowind, the Imperial cults, the legion, the mages of Summerset Isle, the rebels in Hammerfell, be involved in Elswyer-Valenwood conflicts as a soldier, etc. =p And visit historical figures. Just hopefully not make GIANT historical impacts. Just be involved in some of them.

Closed for clean up. Something about you folks won't let you believe that if you keep posting in the wrong thread you will be warned.

Many, many posts have gone away which were way off topic for this thread. I am quite sure I did not even get them all and maybe got some that should have stayed. If so I do apologise, it was a huge edit job. Now, Please stay on topic for this thread. There is an open thread for discussion of the rumored MMO and MMO TES in general. Use that one for any MMO discussion. This thread is for discussion of TESV, a single player game, speculation. Different rumors for different threads. Mixing them and melding them together can only serve to confuse.

Thus, off topic posts should be reported so a moderator can take care of it. We moderators will now try and attend this thread more closely and warn anyone who has previously posted off topic in this thread and continue to do so after this point in time will be warned for posting off topic and/or spam.