[A Lo RIkIton'ton]

"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.

Shegorath surely is controlling you and everyone on this forum just for fun, but in all seriousness, this may work, but they wouldn't get the big bang start-off there most likely gunning for. Sales figures would look like stone mountain on a graph, starting off small, then quickly becoming huge, then gradually slowing down.
effective, but it is a risk so I wouldn't count on it.

[^~LIL B0NE5~^]

"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.

Myself, along with every other soul on this board would love for this to happen; we've been hungry a long time. But I don't see them using such a different marketing technique than was used for FONV (which was much more "beat ya over the head" than "sit back and watch the masses swarm"). If they were targeting just those of us who have been biting our fingernails for 4 years or say, have made algorithms and flowcharts to predict an announcement, I think the quick release would make sense. but the fact is its in their interest to cast a wider net and attract consumers who maybe have no clue its been four years since the last installment.
nice pratchett quote btw.

[joeK]

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.

I am with you on this, Stain. I am only watching the USPTO site for the "no word" mark which might give something on the order of a couple days notice at best (and that is if it even unfolds as it has previously).

[Juan Suarez]

I am with you on this, Stain. I am only watching the USPTO site for the "no word" mark which might give something on the order of a couple days notice at best (and that is if it even unfolds as it has previously).

I too don't take much stock in what happens to the trademarks anymore, but I still disagree with you on the whole "no work mark" thing. The USTPO only has evidence that it unfolded like that once, in which it was filed a day before the Oblivion countdown went up. That's it though. That's hardly a conclusive pattern.

[Jani Eayon]

My father works for AT&T. you know how many times trademarks for things come up in discussion, too many to count.
they only thing they offer the public is proof that someone is thinking of using this trademark in some way.
you wont know for sure until release or announcement, not even the developers are. They may change their minds.

[Elisabete Gaspar]

I too don't take much stock in what happens to the trademarks anymore, but I still disagree with you on the whole "no work mark" thing. The USTPO only has evidence that it unfolded like that once, in which it was filed a day before the Oblivion countdown went up. That's it though. That's hardly a conclusive pattern.

I am just as skeptical as you are on that, hence the whole italicized word "might" since if it happens, then I will have seen it, and if it doesn't then it doesn't matter

[Sophie Miller]

My father works for AT&T. you know how many times trademarks for things come up in discussion, too many to count.
they only thing they offer the public is proof that someone is thinking of using this trademark in some way.
you wont know for sure until release or announcement, not even the developers are. They may change their minds.

Pretty sure that, 2 years into development, they aren't going to change their minds. It's a tad late for that.

[lucile davignon]

Hows about we start doing something somewhat productive, like looking at possible announcement time frames. If we assume TESV will ship in time for the 2011 holidays, does that mean it will be announced at E3 2011? Surely it will be announced at something major, and E3 is the only major convention no that Quakecon has come and gone.

I'm thinking 2011 holidays seem like an alright time to ship a game like this, but would E3 be too close to ship time to be at all reasonable, will the game be announced before E3, or am I just being too hopeful for the time frame of the release date?

Enlighten me peoples, I command that the laymen of teh internets do my bidding.

[Erich Lendermon]

Hows about we start doing something somewhat productive, like looking at possible announcement time frames. If we assume TESV will ship in time for the 2011 holidays, does that mean it will be announced at E3 2011? Surely it will be announced at something major, and E3 is the only major convention no that Quakecon has come and gone.

I'm thinking 2011 holidays seem like an alright time to ship a game like this, but would E3 be too close to ship time to be at all reasonable, will the game be announced before E3, or am I just being too hopeful for the time frame of the release date?

Enlighten me peoples, I command that the laymen of teh internets do my bidding.

Bethesda doesn't announce games at conventions. They just don't. It's not going to happen.

The consensus seems to be that it'll be announced by March (lprobably much sooner than that), most likely on the site a few days before it gets a Game Informer cover.

[Donatus Uwasomba]

Bethesda could announce it right now and it wouldn't make a difference if they announced it in December, January, or March. The excitement factor for the game will be the same regardless of when they announce it.

[Franko AlVarado]

Hows about we start doing something somewhat productive, like looking at possible announcement time frames. If we assume TESV will ship in time for the 2011 holidays, does that mean it will be announced at E3 2011? Surely it will be announced at something major, and E3 is the only major convention no that Quakecon has come and gone.







I'm thinking 2011 holidays seem like an alright time to ship a game this, but would E3 be too close to ship time to be at all reasonable, will the game be announced before E3, or am I just being too hopeful for the time frame of the release date. Enlighten me peoples, I command that the laymen of teh internets do my bidding.

So you think that after 69 threads, we haven't talked once about when we think it may be announced? I know your new here, so you haven't been around for those, but most of us here have discussed that into the ground.

[Hannah Whitlock]

Hey guys. I'm curious. Do devs ever post here?

[Roy Harris]

In this thread? Not in my memory. Gstaff posted to debunk the whole "omg no moar tes" thing, but thats about it.

If you mean the forum in general, yes, they do.

[Sophh]

Hey guys. I'm curious. Do devs ever post here?

If you mean in this thread in particular, then very very rarely. Very. And when they do it's nothing important. The closest we usually get is Gstaff coming in and denying something.

Devs usually lurk more than anything. On rare occasions you can see one looking at the thread, but never posting. And for good reason to. Lord knows how many pointless posts a single word from a dev could cause us to make. For example:

Dev Joe: Hey guys.

Post #1: OMG TESV IS CALLED HEY GUYS

Post #2: TESV DEV JOE PLZ TELL US SOMETHIN BOUT IT

And so on.

[Beat freak]

Pretty sure that, 2 years into development, they aren't going to change their minds. It's a tad late for that.

sorry i wasn't clear I meant to convey that developers could change their mind on using that particular trademark in their product, even though the product will most likely stay the same, rendering applying for a trademark virtually useless in predicting anything for those outside of the developers circle. this is of course until an announcement of the product has been made.

but about the developers here look at the members list, all the game developers i found really haven't posted much at all

[Tracy Byworth]

The Devs probably signed waivers so they can't talk about it or else they get in trouble.

[Lil Miss]

The Devs probably signed waivers so they can't talk about it or else they get in trouble.

ain't no probably to it. That is a definite

[DAVId MArtInez]

Yup, infact most major coporations sign non-nondisclosure agreements with corporate staff, esp if your running in stealth mode. The big thing hear is that with video games the whole project is all about timing, so everybody would sign one.

[Kortknee Bell]

Well thanks for answering the question, but dang. That's a shame. It'd be great to get back and forth between consumer and devs, but I can understand where they're coming from..

[Ash]

OMG

There is a 69 part thread of speculation about WHEN IT WILL BE RELEASED ?

*goes looking for a wall for banging head*

[megan gleeson]

Well thanks for answering the question, but dang. That's a shame. It'd be great to get back and forth between consumer and devs, but I can understand where they're coming from..

Yeah, I know the company that I helped start up had us sign an NDA(Non-Disclosure Agreement even before I was told exactly what the job was, and it still holds even now that were open. I can't even really say how long it had been in stealth mode before launch to give you a clue on how strict some of them can be. Even still, Our company even goes as far to have non-compete clause that basically says we become a liability to the corporation if we spend money on the competition and that's separate from the NDA. Because let's face it...even if they let one thing slip, other companies could do some digging. I wouldn't be surprised if Bioware trolls these boards even if they aren't in direct competition.

Back on topic, yes....sometime this winter probably would be a good indicator for a reveal.

[Killer McCracken]

Could it be that after Toddy slipped that it would be "the shortest wait between announcement and release ever", they found that the game wasn't done at all and they have to spend another two years at it-- and they were about to announce it, but then he said that, and now they can't announce it , because he said it would be a short wait and they don't want to disappoint us...

Since it would seem that they have nothing to lose by announcing it now, could this be a good reason for this unbearable suspense?

I don't really think so... but it's worth considering rambling about.


EDIT: more accuracy in last sentence

[gemma]

People are saying that Beth will not announce the game this month so it doesn't overshadow Fallout NV, and for this reason I don't think it will be announced in March/Spring area due to Brink (assuming the release date is still Spring 2011).

Having said that I believe it will be announced in the window of time between November and February (hopefully not later) with a release shortly after they show it off and steal the show at E3 2011.

[Sammygirl500]

Could it be that after Toddy slipped that it would be "the shortest wait between announcement and release ever", they found that the game wasn't done at all and they have to spend another two years at it-- and they were about to announce it, but then he said that, and now they can't announce it , because he said it would be a short wait and they don't want to disappoint us...

Since it would seem that they have nothing to lose by announcing it now, could this be a good reason for this unbearable suspense?

I don't really think so... but it's worth considering rambling about.


EDIT: more accuracy in last sentence

It's been, what, 2 months since Todd said that? That isn't cause for concern. If they don't announce it before March, then yes, we should get concerned, but for now there's no reason to.

People are saying that Beth will not announce the game this month so it doesn't overshadow Fallout NV, and for this reason I don't think it will be announced in March/Spring area due to Brink (assuming the release date is still Spring 2011).

Having said that I believe it will be announced in the window of time between November and February (hopefully not later) with a release shortly after they show it off and steal the show at E3 2011.

They're much less concerned about hyping up Brink than they are Fallout: New Vegas. Not announcing it because they want to maximize hype for New Vegas makes sense, not announcing it because of Brink doesn't. TES and Brink are two completely different games and they'll have no problem hyping both of them.

[Sanctum]

Hey guys.