Am I the only one puzzled by the fact that Todd Howard swore up and down they would continue to develop and use the Gamebyro engine for all projects in the foreseeable future, and then the first piece of news we get after announcement is that it will use a new engine? This baffles me. I suppose it could be a new iteration of gamebyro, but then why put so much emphasis on it being "new"?

I am glad as **** that they are using a new engine. You say that as if it were a bad thing. Even the engine for Oblivion used elements of the one used in Morrowind, so we are dealing with very old technology here. It is good to see Beth being progressive.

I don't think we have a new engine. Rather an updated Gamebryo.

There we go again... I sure hope we get a definitive answer with the Game Informer preview.

I'm glad too. The development of technology is very rapid. New foundations are required. Why would a new engine be something bad?.
Gamebryo's code is, from what I've heard by those who know, very very "unclean" compared to newer and much better engines, like CryEngine2 or 3.
An updated gamebryo would therefore be something really bad, even though it's updated. Sounds much easier to start from scratch, I'd say, even if I don't know anything about codes and such.

A dev said themselves not so long ago here on the forums that he always prefers new engines. It's faster, easier to handle (once you get to know how to use it), much more possibilities.

You guys do realize that GameBryo is only a rendering engine, right? So a lot of the faults in Oblivon, Fallout 3, Morrowind etc were Bethesda's fault. But yes, it is being dumped for an in-house renderer. I assume that the new CS will be very similar to the one for FO3/Oblivion.

The engine is responsible for how you create the game, what means you can use. The better the engine, the easier it is to do things. The easier things are to do, the fewer faults there are. The engine also controls the capabilities of graphics, and many gameplay possibilites.

Yes but Gamebryo was only for rendering. What they actually used to build the game was made by Bethesda.

Im thinking the new engine was the result of sudden, unexpected and jaw dropping financial success. Bethesda is clearly moving in an obvious path: Release Game with new engine, license the improved version to other companies to make other games, profit. By fully developing their own in-house engine, this would take out a HUGE middleman in the form of Gamebryo. Not only that, its an engine that could very well be built from the ground up to handle some of oblivions complaints, where the old one sufferd restrictions: Open Towns, Levitation, summoning, or maybe changes on a vast scale that we cant even imagine yet. Imagine a system where Passwall could be an underpowerd joke--it likely wont be that extensive, but they can bring back a ton of the stuff they had to set aside in Morrowind and Oblivion.

With Gamebryos company going out of business they had to change the engine also Fallout 3 had a lot of bugs which I think that was the main reason why they switched to a new in house engine.

I think the most concerned people are the PC users - people who have a reason to fear that moddability might be stunted with the new engine or possibly even taken out (maybe for good).

I personally think it's likely just the previous build (used with FO3 and Oblivion) with some new features (potentially stuff like Lightsprint and Umbra amongst others) to make it all fancy again. Bethesda getting a whole new engine doesn't suprise me, either. Look at the engine leap from Daggerfall to Morrowind. That probably had Daggerfall players worried a mite too, I'd wager.

This.

What happened was completely outside of what Bethesda could control. [censored] happens.

I've been thinking a lot about this too. However, I have lots of hope that the game engine is new.

Without looking up any direct quotes, what I can remember to have heard from Bethesda before the Skyrim announcement were vague and generalized comments about updating their existing Gamebryo engine for whatever new game they were working on. They also said things like "you won't see Elder Scrolls 5 anytime soon" (paraphrased). I think they were trying to keep suspicions about TESV down.

Since they announced Skyrim, we've heard several times that they are showing the new engine around and it looks great, and Game Informer and others have been surprised by how good the new game/engine looks. Pete and Todd have answered questions on Twitter which were specifically asking if there is a new engine or an update Gamebryo, and have always confirmed that there is a new engine for Skyrim. I don't think they are being vague or general any longer.

I think that they didn't want to let anyone know they had a new engine until news of Skyrim was out. I think that confirming TESV will be using a new engine, only after announcing TESV, is a way for them to hype the game up. Gamebryo is an older engine with a lot of player complaints, and Skyrim just isn't as exciting a game if it's still using Gamebryo.

Agh. I can't think. I hope all of that made sense.

:tops: Agreed. Honestly I can't wait for GI...my expectations are high I have to admit and I hope the screenshots match what I'm hoping for.

Todd Howard already said in an interview months before they announced Skyrim that Beth had developed a new engine specifically for huge open world games, and that was why Hunted could not use the engine - because it was for open worlds. That was the first thing that made me salivate over the new Elder Scrolls game.

My Steam news for Oblivion threw me this link awhile ago :

http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/12/12/confirmed-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-will-use-an-entirely-new-engine/

/thread
Maybe he is contradicting what he said like, a year ago, but things change. Including IIRC Gamebyro's company going under?

since you put it that way...i feel kinda re-assured, even though daggerfall used bethesda's in-house 'Xngine', and they upgraded to gamebryo.
ah well, im optimistic, and now that they are a big player, they should be focusing on a new, amazing engine to license.

I think it's because of Fallout New Vegas. They don't want their new game and engine to be associated with all of the bad comments from how buggy that game was.

So now they're saying it's brand new.

My thoughts on a new engine? It can be custom tailored to accommodate all the things the game needs to accommodate. Everything the game needs specifically can be built into the engine instead of jury-rigged into a new one. A new in-house engine is a good thing.

Given Bethesda's track record for keeping secrets and given the fact they have acquired the Fallout franchise, Arkane and IdTech would it really surprise anyone if they had bought the rights to the Gamebryo engine from the now bankrupt Emergent Tech?

Besides when development started on Skyrim back in 2007 Emergent wasn't out of business so that whole "they must have dropped that engine because it's makers are bankrupt" just doesn't hold water. You can't just look around now and try to decide you have to look around in 2007 and given the fact that Bethesda used some of Gamebryo's updated tech in FO3 and taking into account what Todd said in the Eurogamer interview about how Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 is their tech and the new engine is based off of FO3 tech, I'll put my money on a build of Gamebryo Light Speed.

Honestly, I'm not sure if I'll get the game if they still used Gamebryo, updated or not. The engine in New Vegas was "updated", but it still felt like Oblivion with guns to me.

His source is the same one we have, which is Nick's tweet.

Yes, New Vegas was an updated version of Fallout 3 which was in turn an updated version of Oblivion. If they are indeed still using Gamebryo (I obviously think they are) then it will be a new ground up build.

How about you judge the engine after seeing it rather than on the name alone?

Apparently only a few people know the definition of "new"

New means new, not gamebyro. If we get an updated gamebyro, A lot of people will be ticked off because that was an obvious lie

Its new...You wanna know my theory why? Brand new means brand new

Taking someone's comment out of context and calling it a lie is questionable at best. At no time has anyone from Bethesda said that Gamebryo is out and in fact they can be quoted saying many things to the contrary.

How long have you been around? When oblivion was released that was called a brand new engine too. They are making this statement because FO3 was recycled from Oblivion and want everyone to know they have started over with a new build. Chances are very good that "new engine" means new build so stop putting words in their mouths and wait for more info.