[Jessica Thomson]

I'd rather he just described what he was eating for lunch, like most people on Twitter. It's a fairly well known annoyance on the internet when people indicate that they know something, but have no intention of telling anyone what it is they know.

E.g. "I was walking through the forest last night when I stumbled upon a mysterious piece of paper that contains the location of El Dorado, the meaning of life AND who really shot JFK - AMAZING! Obviously I'm not going to just post information like that on the internet though. Now where did I put my sandwich..."

I guess some people get a kick out of teasing others with bait. Who knows if that's the case with Alan Nanes, maybe he's trying to feed people as much information as he can at this point and his hands are tied, but you're not going to get much out of reading it either way.

You mean like his "Now that I'm finished with my cryptic comment for the week, need some inspiration for a new idea. Need a change."


Hint, hint I wonder what cryptic message that was :brokencomputer:

[Joey Avelar]

:flamethrower: Last night as just a silly little add on to my dream i had a funny thing happen.
I had just bought Fallout New Vegas, and i was going home to play it when i took off the plastic to read the manual, and at the end was an add for ESV.
i know this is highly unlikely, but i thought it may be one of the best subtle announcements in gaming history.
I think someone said something about this earlier in this thread that led to that part in my dream, but i thought i should say something here

[Stryke Force]

:flamethrower: Last night as just a silly little add on to my dream i had a funny thing happen.
I had just bought Fallout New Vegas, and i was going home to play it when i took off the plastic to read the manual, and at the end was an add for ESV.
i know this is highly unlikely, but i thought it may be one of the best subtle announcements in gaming history.
I think someone said something about this earlier in this thread that led to that part in my dream, but i thought i should say something here

........that would be lol, and pretty fantastic marketing too. :shocking:

[victoria gillis]

Meh I don't see how it's fantastic marketing. Firstly, I expect about 95% of people who buy NV will already have heard of, and most likely invested a significant amount of time playing, at least one Elder Scrolls game [most likely Oblivion]. So it's not as if they'd be reaching a demographic that wasn't already aware of the series. In fact, many or even most people who buy NV are probably already anticipating TES V to some degree... So it doesn't make sense to divert money/resources into funding an ad campaign that will only be seen by people who are already virtual locks to buy the product. Plus, that ad would be all over the internet within seconds, and IMO it'd be a very anticlimactic way of revealing/announcing the game that some of us have been anticipating for half a decade, or more (for people who thought Oblivion failed to live up to its predecessors).

So yeah, as cool as it would be just to get confirmation in that way – or any way for that matter – it's almost certainly not going to happen.

But soon, my friends. We've held out for years, and now we're within months or even weeks of the announcement. Be strong!

[Kelly Tomlinson]

Meh I don't see how it's fantastic marketing. Firstly, I expect about 95% of people who buy NV will already have heard of, and most likely invested a significant amount of time playing, at least one Elder Scrolls game [most likely Oblivion]. So it's not as if they'd be reaching a demographic that wasn't already aware of the series. In fact, many or even most people who buy NV are probably already anticipating TES V to some degree... So it doesn't make sense to divert money/resources into funding an ad campaign that will only be seen by people who are already virtual locks to buy the product. Plus, that ad would be all over the internet within seconds, and IMO it'd be a very anticlimactic way of revealing/announcing the game that some of us have been anticipating for half a decade, or more (for people who thought Oblivion failed to live up to its predecessors).

Only if that was the only TES:V ad they ever made. For the very first ad, sneakily placing it somewhere where some of their biggest fans will find it, on a manual that will be produced regardless of whether the ad is there or not, makes a lot of sense actually. No significant extra costs at all, directed to some of their biggest fans first and foremost before launching into a full ad campaign to reach the masses, and you're right - the internet would go crazy with the news. It's a perfect strategy, for all the reasons you claimed it would be awful.

And anti-climatic? Really? You'd pick up that manual, see a TES:V symbol on the back, and sigh? Are you expecting to see it carved onto the face of the moon when you get up to close the curtains one night?

[Kim Bradley]

I want the announcement to be an explosion on the internet. With several videos + screenshots and unbelievable new features.

[neil slattery]

I'm pessimistic by nature, but I wonder sometimes if they're even working on a TES V.

[Lauren Graves]

Have there been incidences of games being announced via other games? I thought that maybe getting a link to a TES:V countdown or something in the back of the F:NV booklet would be pretty cool - or maybe not even something as big as a countdown, just confirmation of the games' existence in some way. A "coming soon from bethesda" sorta thing.

[Avril Churchill]

Other publishers do it all the time. I don't think Bethesda has ever done it, but they've been doing a lot of new things lately. It's a possibility!
They've changed a lot over the past few years, and saying they're bound to old habits is silly.

[Robert Devlin]

released 1-3 months after announcement and announcement this November.

[Maddy Paul]

released 1-3 months after announcement and announcement this November.

Oh todd howard..... look what you've went and done.

[Lexy Dick]

released 1-3 months after announcement and announcement this November.

1-3 months? Wow... I'd say more in the realm of 9-12 months after the announcement.

[Ladymorphine]

It's wishful thinking

[Lizs]

It's wishful thinking

That sounds like a cue to me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry4iwzS4Na0

:)

[GabiiE Liiziiouz]

I don't know what the big deal is these days with game announcements. I've been playing the Quest for Glory games these past couple weeks, and they had funny advertisemants for their next games as easter eggs. Those were fun.

[Dona BlackHeart]

1-3 months? Wow... I'd say more in the realm of 9-12 months after the announcement.

I think It will be 6-9 months, I doubt It will be over 9 months. Todd already said It will be a quick announcment release gap. not exact words

[Cathrin Hummel]

Probably won't even announce it, they will just immediately release it and say nothing. Everyone will be so weirded out the publicity around it will create epic sales

[ShOrty]

Haha. I can imagine. But seriously, that wouldn't work. I mean, it's not the kind of thing a news network would comment on.

"New RPG released today. No advertising campaign was used, which is odd considering how famous the series is. More at 10.

[X(S.a.R.a.H)X]

1-3 months after the announcement and announcement in November

One reason I said that is because if it is that short you don't have time to lose interest before it is released and if they say it's coming out pretty much after the game the news reporters and news article will report it all and get a broad report spectrum as it is incredibly short and if it breaks a record then they are getting a lot of free advertisemant.

If the special announcement soon after the release of F:NV is TES 5 games forums will explode and every gamer will learn about it through inside Xbox shows or websites that they visit. Comments on PS3 and messages from friends not to forget messages from random people.

[TWITTER.COM]

One reason I said that is because if it is that short you don't have time to lose interest before it is released and if they say it's coming out pretty much after the game the news reporters and news article will report it all and get a broad report spectrum as it is incredibly short and if it breaks a record then they are getting a lot of free advertisemant.

If the special announcement soon after the release of F:NV is TES 5 games forums will explode and every gamer will learn about it through inside Xbox shows or websites that they visit. Comments on PS3 and messages from friends not to forget messages from random people.

If they did this, I'd want to see a really cool page that was updated with a new screenshot, video, or blog post every day of that time period, or maybe every friday. That way there'd be this steady trickle of information about the game to get everyone pumped.

Or maybe some kind of viral marketing campaign.

[Kevan Olson]

I just found what may be an interesting detail. The foreign filing deadline for "Skyrim" is December 21st, 2010.

http://www.trademarkia.com/skyrim-85067861.html

If it is filed then, that may be an indication that the name would be used for the next game, because they wouldn't spend that time and paperwork on the foreign market if they aren't actually releasing a game in those markets. This could also, by extension, give us an idea of the release window for the game.

[Daniel Holgate]

One reason I said that is because if it is that short you don't have time to lose interest before it is released and if they say it's coming out pretty much after the game the news reporters and news article will report it all and get a broad report spectrum as it is incredibly short and if it breaks a record then they are getting a lot of free advertisemant.

If the special announcement soon after the release of F:NV is TES 5 games forums will explode and every gamer will learn about it through inside Xbox shows or websites that they visit. Comments on PS3 and messages from friends not to forget messages from random people.

Honestly, I would love it if developers started to do this. The games that draw my attention when I hear about them from GI or E3, etc but are a year or more out from being released are often forgotten by the time they hit the shelves. However, I don't see Bethesda being the one to set a new blitzkrieg announce-immediate release precedent. They have way too much invested in this game to go about it in such an unconventional way.

[Toby Green]

"People don't like change but if you change things quick enough they go from one state of normality to another"

Moist Von Lipwig- Making money by Terry Pratchett



If Bethesda is planning on releasing a revolutionary system that may cause people to grumble if you release it quickly people don't have time to grumble and fans will buy it to get the series and so will innocent people who have never come across TES because they will want to see the new system.

It's a crazy idea. Maybe I'm being controlled by Sheogorath but this may be one of Bethesda's new advertising tactics. If not I hope they read this forum.

[LuBiE LoU]

I just found what may be an interesting detail. The foreign filing deadline for "Skyrim" is December 21st, 2010.

http://www.trademarkia.com/skyrim-85067861.html

If it is filed then, that may be an indication that the name would be used for the next game, because they wouldn't spend that time and paperwork on the foreign market if they aren't actually releasing a game in those markets. This could also, by extension, give us an idea of the release window for the game.

Thank you for presenting this, but this doesn't really mean anything other than what we've known for a while now: that there's a strong possibility they're planning to use the name "Skyrim" in a game relatively soon (i.e. < 1 year in my opinion). The best precision we can reasonably glean from trademarks is tenable at best...so much so that I refuse to take much stock in it anymore.

[RObert loVes MOmmy]

Anyone think a Super Bowl announcement would be likely? Then like I've been saying, a release around Holiday season 2011.. that would be 9-10 months from announcement to release, still pretty short by Bethesda's standards.