[Tyler F]

I suppose we would have to wait for TESV to be release before we could determine, or speculate on that. Isn't this the first time BGS is developing two major titles at the same time (or rather one after another)?

Technically, no, that would be the Oblivion-Fallout 3 development phase. Development for Oblivion started in 2002 and development for Fallout 3 started in 2004. By that, I am assuming TES V's development started in 2006 and Fallout 4's in 2008(although is still probably in a very early phase of development).

[Celestine Stardust]

Technically, no, that would be the Oblivion-Fallout 3 development phase. Development for Oblivion started in 2002 and development for Fallout 3 started in 2004.

Oh, yeah, your right. I was thinking of the Fallout3/TES5 overlap. I forgot Fallout development started during Oblivions.

[Charlotte Buckley]

Technically, no, that would be the Oblivion-Fallout 3 development phase. Development for Oblivion started in 2002 and development for Fallout 3 started in 2004.

Ah, but this is the first time Bethesda started developing 2 titles at once with timelines that they themselves decided on. They got Fallout because the bought the license, and I'm sure that a few months before that, when they had no idea that they would soon have to start work on another game, they had no idea they would soon have to give up some members of their team to go and work on something else.

[CxvIII]

What I can't help but wonder is just what is taking Bethesda so long? Could Bethesda actually be trying to beat their previous games in almost every way or something similar to that?

That's exactly what I think they're doing.

In that recent interview with Todd Howard, the dude asked him what he would like to "fix" in TESV in relation to Oblivion's shortcomings and Todd said something along the lines of they're no longer content with a game just working. That tells me that their next game is probably going to be their most polished one yet. (Better animation, fewer bugs, etc.) At least they'll try for that. We'll see how it turns out though.

[Oyuki Manson Lavey]

Ah, but this is the first time Bethesda started developing 2 titles at once with timelines that they themselves decided on. They got Fallout because the bought the license, and I'm sure that a few months before that, when they had no idea that they would soon have to start work on another game, they had no idea they would soon have to give up some members of their team to go and work on something else.

That's true. Therefore we have no pattern for any of these multi-development releases, yet, either.

[Beast Attire]

That's exactly what I think they're doing.

In that recent interview with Todd Howard, the dude asked him what he would like to "fix" in TESV in relation to Oblivion's shortcomings and Todd said something along the lines of they're no longer content with a game just working. That tells me that their next game is probably going to be their most polished one yet. (Better animation, fewer bugs, etc.) At least they'll try for that. We'll see how it turns out though.

And then trying is the most important thing unlike all these promises of being true to the PC only to get another consolized POS.

[Vera Maslar]

That's exactly what I think they're doing.

In that recent interview with Todd Howard, the dude asked him what he would like to "fix" in TESV in relation to Oblivion's shortcomings and Todd said something along the lines of they're no longer content with a game just working. That tells me that their next game is probably going to be their most polished one yet. (Better animation, fewer bugs, etc.) At least they'll try for that. We'll see how it turns out though.

A link to that interview?

[Richus Dude]

A link to that interview?

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/bethesdas-todd-howard-on-rpg-development-3d-not-supporting-nintendo-and-more/1/

IG: The hypothetical one that will hopefully, probably, be coming... can you talk a little bit in retrospect, looking at Oblivion, at some of the things that maybe you’d like to address in that game for the next one if there is a next one? Or maybe things that got cut out of that game that you wanted to include?

TH: You always have a million of them. I think one of the challenges… see now you’re making me think back to Oblivion. One of the big things in my memory that flavored that game was the move to the 360 and the new hardware. It was all so new and there was a lot of gameplay changes along with that. How are people going to experience this kind of game? There were a lot of technical hurdles, and we’ve gotten a bit better at managing that. I don’t know how that would translate to a future Elder Scrolls. With anything we’re doing, whether it’s Oblivion or Fallout 3, we like to start fresh as much as possible; I know I’m going off in the weeds on this answer. You spend a lot of time trying to design a game, but then also deal with all new technology. We’re trying to, going forward, find a better balance between those two, so that we’re not just satisfied with something working.

[Sakura Haruno]

. . .You spend a lot of time trying to design a game, but then also deal with all new technology. We’re trying to, going forward, find a better balance between those two, so that we’re not just satisfied with something working.

Well an alternate speculation that could feed, rather than making TES V the best ever in terms of story, gameplay, and fun, is that they were frustrated with how much of a struggle it was to plan their development of a game to work on two different platforms at a future date when some of that technology might have become obsolete.

That could suggest that better cross-platform similarity is the goal he is suggestin when he says "not just satisfied with something working."

But then, as a simple game-[censored] who only became an Oblivion player this summer and no real knowledge of how the game works across platforms, etc., I'm just speculating (WILDLY!) :celebration:

Question to some of you guys who know this business better than me: Do these games SERIOUSLY take like 5 or 6 years to develop from conception to market?

[Stephani Silva]

"I would say that we have pretty much the same team. I've worked with a lot of guys for over 10 years – the group that did Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3. We just really enjoy doing what we're doing. We don’t want to be doing a ton of stuff."--Todd Howard in the Industry Gamers interview.

Well, that's really all I needed to read. I don't know how he could have said "Don't worry about us blind-siding you with a new IP" more clearly without explicitly saying it. So long as the next game is in the works, I can wait until it's ready. It's worrying that you're looking forward to something that may not be happening that is debilitating.

And while the current engine has satisfied me pretty well, there have been enough complaints about Bethesda technology that investing some time in the engine before making TES V and Fallout IV makes a lot of sense. Their going after the "next big thing" rather than "good enough to market" is a large part of why they're my favorite game developers. Well that and the style of game they make.

[D LOpez]

They tend to announce new titles a little over two years after their previous one has been released. It hasn't quite been two years since BGS has released a game.

Fallout 3 was officially revealed 1 year and 2 months after Oblivion was released. So that's definitely a shorter time. And ESV will probably be on this generation of consoles, just as Fallout 3 was. So they can't be making a leap like Morrowind to Oblivion in terms of graphics, so I can't see why it would take them too long to announce it. They have spent a lot of time on their tech, as Todd Howard has said, and since we still haven't had an announcement, they must REALLY have done a lot of work with the tech. But it's still on this generation of consoles, so I don't expect it to take as long to announce as it did to announce Oblivion after Morrowind's release.

[Damian Parsons]

Fallout 3 was officially revealed 1 year and 2 months after Oblivion was released. So that's definitely a shorter time.

Fallout 3 was an anomaly. Early announcement was pretty much forced by the hype surrounding their purchase of the IP. I don't think it's relevant to their preferred timing of announcements and releases.

[Daddy Cool!]

Question to some of you guys who know this business better than me: Do these games SERIOUSLY take like 5 or 6 years to develop from conception to market?

So far the longest a Bethesda game took to be made and released was Fallout 3, at a little over 4 years. So while not exactly 6 years, yes, Bethesda's games take a long, long time to make.

Fallout 3 was officially revealed 1 year and 2 months after Oblivion was released. So that's definitely a shorter time. And ESV will probably be on this generation of consoles, just as Fallout 3 was. So they can't be making a leap like Morrowind to Oblivion in terms of graphics, so I can't see why it would take them too long to announce it. They have spent a lot of time on their tech, as Todd Howard has said, and since we still haven't had an announcement, they must REALLY have done a lot of work with the tech. But it's still on this generation of consoles, so I don't expect it to take as long to announce as it did to announce Oblivion after Morrowind's release.

I'm confident they can still make a really big leap in graphics, when you consider just how dated Oblivion looks in comparison to most games coming out now for consoles. It certainly wont be as big a leap as Morrowind to Oblivion but it will still be a big leap. But quite frankly as long as it looks just a little better than Fallout 3 did then I'll be perfectly happy.

[Emily Jones]

That is very reassuring that it is the same crew that did Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout3! Still have not tried Morrowind, but Oblivion and Fallout3 are my favorite games of all time, both masterpieces despite their flaws.

@Antibody: Wow. Four years of development. At $50 a pop retail, I have a hard time wrapping my head around those financials, not that I'm at all a finance person. Anyway, glad if they make a good living out of it!

Why can't more game companies be like Bethesda?

[Hearts]

Oblivions graphics are sure outdated. Just look at some of the new games out for the 360, it's almost like a different platform.
And I don't think that they are done yet, I don't think the 360 limits have been reached at all.

[yermom]

That is very reassuring that it is the same crew that did Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout3! Still have not tried Morrowind, but Oblivion and Fallout3 are my favorite games of all time, both masterpieces despite their flaws.

@Antibody: Wow. Four years of development. At $50 a pop retail, I have a hard time wrapping my head around those financials, not that I'm at all a finance person. Anyway, glad if they make a good living out of it!

Why can't more game companies be like Bethesda?

A blockbuster game can cost tens of millions of dollars to develop, but the also sell really well, Oblivion sold over 3 million copies at $50 - $70 each, which ends up being well over $100 million of profit.

Of course, not all of this money is going to one company, but it's still a lot of money going around.

I agree with you that Bethesda is a pretty great company, but I also think that it would be better if they weren't so secretive...which leads us back to the topic on hand.

When do we think TES V will be announced/released? How far along in the development cycle do we think they are, if at all? Why do we think these things?

[ONLY ME!!!!]

I'd say TES:V is in the "planning" phase right now, as far as development goes. I'd wager they have more than 1 team working on it, some people probably planning the story, some people probably tackling mechanic issues, etc.

[Erich Lendermon]

I'd say TES:V is in the "planning" phase right now, as far as development goes. I'd wager they have more than 1 team working on it, some people probably planning the story, some people probably tackling mechanic issues, etc.

I do not know about planning. If anything they have been planning since they were done with Fallout 3. Which was released just about 2 years ago. Two years is a long time. They must be done at least a bit more than planning. They have probably finished with concept art, story, new lore, the engine and probably a bit more.

[Prohibited]

I'd say TES:V is in the "planning" phase right now, as far as development goes. I'd wager they have more than 1 team working on it, some people probably planning the story, some people probably tackling mechanic issues, etc.

Yeah. They planned for "Skyrim" in late 2006, and they're still planning it now... [/sarcasm]

They shipped Fallout 3 almost two years ago and you seriously still think they're planning their next game? I don't think so.



Also, they're most likely finished with any major engine changes, as Todd Howard said that they "spent a lot of time" on it. Spent, as in past-tense.

They are definitely in full-production, and have been since Fallout 3's release. Just because Bethesda hasn't said a word about their next game doesn't mean they're still in the planning stage. Planning was done a long time ago.

[CORY]

Ahh, Mister Tissue! You know what is what!

I am assuming there will be a GI announcement sometime between now and Quake Con 2011. Then they will reveal TES V at Quake Con 2011 and possibly at E3 2011.

[Phillip Brunyee]

Like Mr. Tissue Box said, the fact that they registered for the Skyrim trademark in 2006 shows that they, at the very least, started planning it out in 2006. I'm willing to concede that they may not have started building the actual world until after Shivering Isles was released, because that was quite a big expansion and considering they had to also work on Fallout 3 I doubt they had any manpower to spare to make TES V. That's not to say work wasn't progressing on it, but just that it may not have been in full development until after Shivering Isles was released. But I can say with confidence that they started making real progress with it as soon as Shivering Isles was done, if not sooner.

Still, the planning stages constitute the beginning of development, even if the actual game wasn't being made yet. So I'm confident it has been in development, no matter how limited, at least since Oblivion was released.

[Jason White]

I'd say TES:V is in the "planning" phase right now, as far as development goes. I'd wager they have more than 1 team working on it, some people probably planning the story, some people probably tackling mechanic issues, etc.

I bet they have a story layed out for each province right now. All they have to do is decide which province they want to make for a new elder scrolls game. Kind of like a timeline. But thats me.

[Auguste Bartholdi]

I bet they have a story layed out for each province right now. All they have to do is decide which province they want to make for a new elder scrolls game. Kind of like a timeline. But thats me.

I doubt that. They have a whole plot planned out by now, almost definitely in my opinion. The 2nd book was most likely "plotted" at least 8-12+ months ago. I'm assuming this book leads right into TES V.

[*Chloe*]

I do not know about this. The Infernal City's story was created with the author (forgot his name at the moment. ) Also I do not think that if I was creating a series of video games that I would make a complete story outline before each game. I would make the story when it is time to make the game. When it is time to make the next game I make that story then.

Remember that the Elder Scrolls series is not one big plot like Assassins Creed. It is multiple stories that fit into Nirn's history. If you have not noticed, Earth has no plotted story. Which leads me to believe that BGS will come up with things at the beginning of each game.

[lolly13]

Bethesda likely has a very detailed timeline of the events leading up to and taking place during TES V, and has a less detailed timeline for future games, containing only major events. They then fill in the gaps with more details when the time comes. For example, "The Ministry of Truth crashes, triggers Red Mountain and destroys Vvardenfell" is likely an event they planned while they were still working on Morrowind. That's just what I think, anyway.