[Chris Jones]

There is NO OFFICIAL information about a new TES game release.

This thread is for member speculation of when and if TES V will be released. This is where you post any new information about when it might be released, tidbits from interviews which mention it and such.

It is also where you post your theories of when you think it might come out based on guesses, number crunching, rumors or such.

This is about speculating on the next TES game and when -- or if -- it is going to be released. It is not a place for discussion of what is going to be in it, what type of graphics there will be, or any other subject of that type; they belong in the http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1105916-tes-v-ideas-and-suggestions-172/. If those kind of posts get raised they will be deleted and the poster warned for going off topic.


Please note that this thread is not a personal chat box and that one liners and posts of little substance will be considered as spam and thus the poster will be subject to warnings and suspensions.

No scans of copy righted material are allowed in this thread. Any claims to having insider information will be removed. All other forum rules apply. You agreed to them, so please read them.

More recent interviews of note:
April 27th, 2009: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/974/974529p1.html
June 25th, 2009: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24211 (particularly this quoted part)August 14th, 2009: http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/08/14/quakecon-2009-todd-howard-keynote-highlights/
August 17th, 2009: Pete clarify many things of what happen in QuakeCon in this blog: http://bethblog.com/index.php/2009/08/17/clarifying-about-next-elder-scrolls-game-mmo-etc/
January 6th, 2010: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/kotaku/2010/01/06/chatting-with-fallout-and-oblivions-todd-howard, at the 9:30-10:30 mark Todd Howard said: "[...] we spend a lot of time adding to the engine, [...] and we've sort of been doing that with the big new game [we've been] making since we finished Fallout 3. You know we finished Fallout 3 over a year ago so that whole time has been spent re-doing a large part of our basic technology[...]".
May 4th 2010: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/04/interview-bethesdas-pete-hines/ about future games.
August 2010: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-16-bethesdas-todd-howard-interview?page=1 and an http://pc.ign.com/articles/111/1112464p1.html

PLEASE NOTE: AS PER MODERATOR REQUESTS IN THE PREVIOUS THREAD, PLEASE CONFINE THIS DISCUSSION TO SPECULATION TO BETHESDA GAME STUDIOS / TES:V. DISCUSSION OF ZENIMAX ONLINE STUDIOS PROJECTS OR AN ES MMO SHOULD GO IN THE http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1085332-official-tes-multiplayer-thread/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1110826-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-60/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1110982-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-61/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1111500-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-62/,
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1106754-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-55/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1107601-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-56/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1108632-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-57/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1109811-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-58/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1110163-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-59/,
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1103053-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-50/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1103159-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-51/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1103382-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-52/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1104047-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-53/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1104749-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-54/,
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1101929-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-45/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1102423-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-46/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1102619-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-47/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1102744-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-48/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1102894-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-49/,
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1099526-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-40/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1100100-tes-v-speculation-thread-41/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1100625-tes-v-speculation-thread-42/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1101362-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-43/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1101692-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-44/,
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1096566-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-35/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1097314-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-36/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1097723-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-37/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1098448-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-38/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1098899-official-tes-v-speculation-thread-39/,

Note that Bethesda Game Studios is NOT working on Fallout: New Vegas, Rage, Brink, or Hunted: The Demon's Forge -- Nor do they develop MMOs.

[Lizbeth Ruiz]

We've received a lot of interesting new recently. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-16-bethesdas-todd-howard-interview?page=1 has a wealth of new information to speculate on including that they're "in production on the new game, and we have a design going for the one after that." This shouldn't be too surprising, after Bethesda's expansion near the end of Oblivion's developement they were large enough to maintained staggered developement on two games (which allowed them to complete most of Fallout 3's pre-production while finishing Oblivion up) while still having the option of focusing most everyone on a single project.

Also interesting is http://pc.ign.com/articles/111/1112464p1.html which reveals that Bethesda's next game will not be using id tech 5. Todd explains that the "new engine built for its upcoming title is more beneficial to creating huge, open-world games, such as Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, while id Tech 5 is better for more contained environments."

[Angela Woods]

Also interesting is http://pc.ign.com/articles/111/1112464p1.html which reveals that Bethesda's next game will not be using id tech 5. Todd explains that the "new engine built for its upcoming title is more beneficial to creating huge, open-world games, such as Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, while id Tech 5 is better for more contained environments."

Oooo, I'm pumped. New engine, improved Tech. This new engine will pwn. Also, we will be able to climb up ladders.

[m Gardner]

Oooo, I'm pumped. New engine, improved Tech. This new engine will pwn. Also, we will be able to climb up ladders.

I wish we could climb trees...

Tree climbing speculation?

[T. tacks Rims]

1) There are current trademarks for clothes, manuals, games, etc., for SKYRIM. This is a province in the TES world. It would not make sense to have these trademarks if they were not going to use them. The company said that they "use the trademarks to protect their rights to it" or something to that effect, but that begs the question "why haven't you marked Black Marsh, Hammerfall, etc.?" They intend to make a game set in Skyrim.

I think Bethesda's next game is most likely to be TES V and I think it is most likely to be called Skyrim. However don't treat this as definite and be careful when reading intentions from filed trademarks.

A while back Bethesda trademarked Fallout in relation to film and some related things, does this mean that Bethesda is planning on a Fallout movie? No, it appears they were doing this simply to protect the IP after learning about an unrelated post-apocalyptic movie titles "Fallout" which has since changed its name. This isn't to say that Skyrim was trademarked to protect it, although that's possible. It is also possible that Skyrim is being planned for an Elder Scrolls game other than TES V - perhaps an Elder Scrolls Travels game.

Again I think this trademark is likely to be for TES V but likely is not the same as definite.

2) The Paul Oughton quote. He said that we should expect "A new TES game in 2010." If you take into account the revamp of the game engine and some delays (classic), the quote points to a TES game in 2011 (possibly announced in 2010).

Oughton's comment was unofficial speculation, I wouldn't read much in to it.

3) In his interview with Eurogamer, Howard said that Beth likes doing what it does. This leads me to believe that it is a game that it has done in the past. It would make little sense to make another FO game after they just made FO3 and they allowed Obsidian to make FONV (if they wanted to make another FO game, why give Obsidian the go ahead?), so this game will be TESV.

"What it does" sound more like a reference to open-world RPGs than specifically to TES games.

Having Obsidian work on New Vegas while Bethesda worked on Fallout 4 would surprise me. I wouldn't be astonished or knocked off my feet to find out they were doing this, they could reasonably be planning their next Elder Scrolls game for next generation consoles in which case this game wouldn't be an Elder Scrolls title. Unlikely? Very, but not beyond the realm of reason.

4) Howard has said in the past that the Elder Scrolls series is extremely popular. They will make another. Seeing as how TESV is greatly anticipated without even being announced, and since they just extended their IP repertoire to 2 games, now is the perfect time for TESV.

You could supplement this argument with the release of the Elder Scrolls novels - why release TES novels so long after Oblivion if they didn't have a new Elder Scrolls game in the works?


I still suggest flexibility here rather than strong convictions that the next game will be TES V Skyrim.

[Skivs]

Also, we will be able to climb up ladders.

I don't know if thats a definite but I guess we can hope for it.

[Kari Depp]

I don't know if thats a definite but I guess we can hope for it.

I'm sure if the dev team managed to pull it off, it'd be such an accomplishment for them that it'd be a feature on the back of the box:

-Over 300 quests!
-20 km of land to explore!
-30 different types of ladders!

:nod:

[Leonie Connor]

Yes, Ladders would be pretty awesome in the elderscrolls games. Even in Daggerfall, where they actually had a climbing skill, and you could scale city walls, dungeon passages, and large establishments, in some houses where they had a ladder leading up to an attic, clicking on it would merely teleport you up. It felt sort of degrading. So having them in a new game would definitely be worthy of putting on the back of the box. :laugh:

But more seriously, those two interviews gravely narrow down the selection. A new system built to create larger more dynamic worlds, a new game in the works which has been confirmed (Though is still kept secretive)... We are definitely looking to an open world game here. It could either be new, or another fallout/elderscrolls game. And with two fallout games just released, then that makes fallout a lot less likely. I don't see them working on a completely new open ended world anytime soon, but who knows? Either way, the likeliness of another elderscrolls game just seems so much more believable than it did before the interviews. And of course it was believable before too.

I'm pretty excited to see what lies behind the curtain.

[BlackaneseB]

M'aiq hopes he can move to Skyrim soon. See what's hiding in all those mountains!

[Chloe Botham]

Yes, Ladders would be pretty awesome in the elderscrolls games. Even in Daggerfall, where they actually had a climbing skill, and you could scale city walls, dungeon passages, and large establishments, in some houses where they had a ladder leading up to an attic, clicking on it would merely teleport you up. It felt sort of degrading. So having them in a new game would definitely be worthy of putting on the back of the box. :laugh:

But more seriously, those two interviews gravely narrow down the selection. A new system built to create larger more dynamic worlds, a new game in the works which has been confirmed (Though is still kept secretive)... We are definitely looking to an open world game here. It could either be new, or another fallout/elderscrolls game. And with two fallout games just released, then that makes fallout a lot less likely. I don't see them working on a completely new open ended world anytime soon, but who knows? Either way, the likeliness of another elderscrolls game just seems so much more believable than it did before the interviews. And of course it was believable before too.

I'm pretty excited to see what lies behind the curtain.

I suppose we can expect to see a return of the climbing skill.

[Phillip Brunyee]

I think Bethesda's next game is most likely to be TES V and I think it is most likely to be called Skyrim. However don't treat this as definite and be careful when reading intentions from filed trademarks.

A while back Bethesda trademarked Fallout in relation to film and some related things, does this mean that Bethesda is planning on a Fallout movie? No, it appears they were doing this simply to protect the IP after learning about an unrelated post-apocalyptic movie titles "Fallout" which has since changed its name. This isn't to say that Skyrim was trademarked to protect it, although that's possible. It is also possible that Skyrim is being planned for an Elder Scrolls game other than TES V - perhaps an Elder Scrolls Travels game.

Again I think this trademark is likely to be for TES V but likely is not the same as definite.

That's true, but in light of the fact that we know for sure there is a game in the works, and the trademarks are specifically for games, clothing, game manuals, etc., it is much more likely that this is precisely that game. Had they trademarked "Oblivion" or "Cyrodiil" for movies, or even "Skyrim" for movies, I would say they are just protecting their assets (unless, of course, I heard something official about a movie), but this is just too perfect to be coincidental.

Oughton's comment was unofficial speculation, I wouldn't read much in to it.

By itself, this comment is not definitive. But, paired with the rest of the evidence, this comment is a bit more illuminating. Paul Oughton does not own Bethesda, but he is a publishing exec. He would know about future titles coming down the pike.

"What it does" sound more like a reference to open-world RPGs than specifically to TES games.

True, and I sort of forgot about the rest of what I was going to say here. Todd has been talking about not announcing because "they don't want fans to get mad if something changes..." You could take this like the crossbow in AC, but I read into the fan part. A new IP doesn't have fans yet. Elder Scrolls does, and they would definitely let Beth know if they weren't happy with what the game looked like it was becoming.

Having Obsidian work on New Vegas while Bethesda worked on Fallout 4 would surprise me. I wouldn't be astonished or knocked off my feet to find out they were doing this, they could reasonably be planning their next Elder Scrolls game for next generation consoles in which case this game wouldn't be an Elder Scrolls title. Unlikely? Very, but not beyond the realm of reason.


You could supplement this argument with the release of the Elder Scrolls novels - why release TES novels so long after Oblivion if they didn't have a new Elder Scrolls game in the works?


I still suggest flexibility here rather than strong convictions that the next game will be TES V Skyrim.

I did forget about the books, thanks for the addition. As for FO4, it would very much so surprise me to find them working on it. There is little reason for them to want to make the third FO game in 3 years (if it is released in Oct/Nov 2011). Not only would it T-off all of the TES fans, but it doesn't really make business sense for them to ignore a very successful, highly anticipated, and more-rested series in TES in favor of saturating the market with FO stuff. I would thinik that they want to maintain the longevity of the FO series, and releasing games every year is not the way to do it. It makes the game sort of gimmicky, instead of making it something very special when it comes out. They have established Fallout as a great series. They don't want to beat it to death. If they release every 3-4 years, each one will be highly anticipated and will be much more appreciated by the fans who play it. By the same reasoning, TESV is the perfect fit for this game. We have been waiting a long time (63 spec threads, 176 suggestion threads) for the game, and the day it is announced will be that much more noticed because of this.

[dean Cutler]

What this will (hopefully) mean.

-Completely open world. It CAN be done, and on the 360/PS3. Alan Wake looks great, and was originally an open world game. Red Dead Redemption and GTA 4 are both completely (well ok a lot of buildings are sealed) open world and look great. With any luck they'll have gone all out for this as their primary goal.

-Better animation, as they mentioned. Animation is as much, if not more about the tools, sofware, and artists at your disposal as anything to do with power. So if they say they're going for it, then they went for it. I'd expect something between Half-Life 2 and Red Dead/Mass Effect.

Other than that it will just look all around better. Get those DX10/11 cards ready kiddies, they'll almost certainly use some of the technical features of them for optimisation (words like depth formats and etc.) and we might get lucky and get a few cool shinies the consoles players won't have (C'mon proper God Rays!)

[patricia kris]

What this will (hopefully) mean.

-Completely open world. It CAN be done, and on the 360/PS3. Alan Wake looks great, and was originally an open world game. Red Dead Redemption and GTA 4 are both completely (well ok a lot of buildings are sealed) open world and look great. With any luck they'll have gone all out for this as their primary goal.

-Better animation, as they mentioned. Animation is as much, if not more about the tools, sofware, and artists at your disposal as anything to do with power. So if they say they're going for it, then they went for it. I'd expect something between Half-Life 2 and Red Dead/Mass Effect.

Other than that it will just look all around better. Get those DX10/11 cards ready kiddies, they'll almost certainly use some of the technical features of them for optimisation (words like depth formats and etc.) and we might get lucky and get a few cool shinies the consoles players won't have (C'mon proper God Rays!)

What are your sources? When did they say that they are focusing on animations? The eurogamer interview? IGN interview?

[JR Cash]

Two people have just become mods, that usually only happens when there's going to be a big increase in activity on the forums. What would cause a big increase in activity? A game announcement, especially one for TES V. The mods probably wouldn't know if an announcement was coming, but they were probably told by an admin to recruit new mods. And an Admin would know if an announcement was coming soon, especially Gstaff, as he frequently talks with Todd.

Just my two cents.

[Spooky Angel]

Two people have just become mods, that usually only happens when there's going to be a big increase in activity on the forums. What would cause a big increase in activity? A game announcement, especially one for TES V. The mods probably wouldn't know if an announcement was coming, but they were probably told by an admin to recruit new mods. And an Admin would know if an announcement was coming soon, especially Gstaff, as he frequently talks with Todd.

Just my two cents.

Who are the new mods?

[Emzy Baby!]

Who are the new mods?

greenwarden and falchya

[Steeeph]

What are your sources? When did they say that they are focusing on animations? The eurogamer interview? IGN interview?

Kotaku interview, and a couple other sources.

Todd Howard specifically stated they're focusing on animations and making NPCs look better on-screen.

[JAY]

Kotaku interview, and a couple other sources.

Todd Howard specifically stated they're focusing on animations and making NPCs look better on-screen.

Thanks dude. Its good to know that our characters wont be stuck in a still frame while jumping off the mountains of Skyrim.

[Erika Ellsworth]

It'd be great if our characters actually started losing control of their fall after a certain point (think GTA: IV) and fell through the air screaming and ragdollin'. The higher your Acrobatics, the longer you can fall without losing control. Aye?

[Liii BLATES]

It'd be great if our characters actually started losing control of their fall after a certain point (think GTA: IV) and fell through the air screaming and ragdollin'. The higher your Acrobatics, the longer you can fall without losing control. Aye?

Where is your Colovian Fur Helm avatar? Why are you posting this in the speculation topic? It is a good idea though.

[Killer McCracken]

Where my Colovian Fur Helm is? I got bored of it (and of trying to impersonate M'aiq).

And I posted that here because, uh, there was talk of improving their animations. That idea popped in my head and I decided to post it. I suppose it was a bit off-topic, so let's just leave it at that.

[Alexandra Ryan]

Where my Colovian Fur Helm is? I got bored of it (and of trying to impersonate M'aiq).

And I posted that here because, uh, there was talk of improving their animations. That idea popped in my head and I decided to post it. I suppose it was a bit off-topic, so let's just leave it at that.

Ahh, well, it was funny while it lasted.

[Teghan Harris]

I think Bethesda's next game is most likely to be TES V and I think it is most likely to be called Skyrim. However don't treat this as definite and be careful when reading intentions from filed trademarks.

A while back Bethesda trademarked Fallout in relation to film and some related things, does this mean that Bethesda is planning on a Fallout movie? No, it appears they were doing this simply to protect the IP after learning about an unrelated post-apocalyptic movie titles "Fallout" which has since changed its name. This isn't to say that Skyrim was trademarked to protect it, although that's possible. It is also possible that Skyrim is being planned for an Elder Scrolls game other than TES V - perhaps an Elder Scrolls Travels game.

Is it possible that the "Skyrim" name was trademarked just for protection as Hungry Donner mentioned, after that wifi company opened its web site as named skyrim? http://www.skyrim.com/ Do the dates match????

[Sharra Llenos]

Is it possible that the "Skyrim" name was trademarked just for protection as Hungry Donner mentioned, after that wifi company opened its web site as named skyrim? http://www.skyrim.com/ Do the dates match????

That makes a lot of sense to me. We could be getting an Elder Scrolls set in Valenwood for all we know I remember seeing that trademark for Skyrim wifi a while ago on the official website for that stuff. Interesting.

[sally R]

Is it possible that the "Skyrim" name was trademarked just for protection as Hungry Donner mentioned, after that wifi company opened its web site as named skyrim? http://www.skyrim.com/ Do the dates match????

10/19/2006 for the WiFi mark, so kinda close.

As for protecting the interests (copy and paste email from Pete re: new Skyrim mark):


As a general rule, we protect any existing marks we have on our properties we own. We do what we can to protect our properties and anything we may or may not do with them down the road.





From: Removed for privacy
Sent: Monday, July 05, 2010 12:15 PM
To: Pete Hines
Subject: Trademark Application



Hi Pete,

If you are reading this, then you are looking in your spam folder I bet I know that there is nothing you can say about any upcoming plans for TES, so I am not even going to go there. What I would like to know is why Bethesda has had a history of applying for trademarks and going into their final extensions and then applying again for virtually the same marks with slightly expanded definitions? It happened with Oblivion, and yes I know it recently happened with another mark which will remain out of this conversation; but I wanted to know the rationale behind this.



So sufficed to say, I realize this was written more as catharsis than anything else, since it will likely never get read as I am sure you are inundated with thousands of emails like this and there just isn't enough time in the day.