[Scott Clemmons]

Oh damn it all to hell....oh and what are the VGAs? video game awards?

THIS

http://www.spike.com/event/vga

[Adam]

Oh damn it all to hell....oh and what are the VGAs? video game awards?

The http://www.spike.com/event/vga, held on Saturday, December 11th at 8PM ET/5PM PT. Lots of new game announcements are expected - some have already been teased, but there are lots of days between now and the 9th and there's plenty of room for a heavy-hitter like TESV.

[Tiffany Holmes]

The http://www.spike.com/event/vga, held on Saturday December 11 at 8PM ET/5PM PT. Lots of new game announcements are expected - some have already been teased, but there are lots of days between now and the 9th and there's plenty of room for a heavy-hitter like TESV.

Well I'm pretty confident in the chances of ES5 being announced, but then again that may just be wishful thinking.

[Bellismydesi]

http://www.spike.com/video/spike-vgas-be-first/3500340
This promo doesn't mean anything concrete, but it just made me think that if TESV is to be released late 2011, it certainly is one of the biggest, most important games of 2011.

I could be wrong, but I think it's pretty obvious they leaked the rumor on purpose to get attention before they show it off on VGAs. They've been ready to show the game for months so why not there?

They'd get immediate exposure to large demographic and I'm pretty sure that beats announcing it on their website. In fact, I'd be seriously worried about Beth's marketing team if they don't seize this opportunity.

[SiLa]

I could be wrong, but I think it's pretty obvious they leaked the rumor on purpose to get attention before they show it off on VGAs. They've been ready to show the game for months so why not there?

They'd get immediate exposure to large demographic and I'm pretty sure that beats announcing it on their website. In fact, I'd be seriously worried about Beth's marketing team if they don't seize this opportunity.

Exactly what I've been thinking, and let's not forget that they have a lot to show, and want to show it but don't think the timing is right. What better timing than the video game awards with a February cover reveal of GI and an announcement of the second book sometime in between.

[kyle pinchen]

I could be wrong, but I think it's pretty obvious they leaked the rumor on purpose to get attention before they show it off on VGAs. They've been ready to show the game for months so why not there?

They'd get immediate exposure to large demographic and I'm pretty sure that beats announcing it on their website. In fact, I'd be seriously worried about Beth's marketing team if they don't seize this opportunity.

"Concocted" rumors are always difficult marketing ploys because you can't guarantee the major press outlets will pick up on the rumor you're trying to concoct, but if this is one of the cases in which it succeeded, then go Bethesda. However, from what Todd has said in the past, it seems they've had some sort of announcement plan for a while now - I wouldn't expect them to deviate from it, even if it means missing out on some potential publicity. If they don't have a marketing plan that'll easily trump the potential this one's got, then I'd tend agree with you: it's an opportunity they shouldn't miss out on.

[Tyrel]

And does Denmark have something that would make Danish voice actors cheaper than using US actors? Such as a less powerful actors guild?

For any game with English audio, a lot. Think of the most flat and uninteresting accent you can. It has no variations in tone, and an extremely basic, unvaried pronunciation of every single syllable. That is the Danish accent. If any developer wants a Scandinavian accent in their game, they'll go for either Swedes, Norwegians or very well trained Americans. And I'm not even exaggerating.

[Bitter End]

I'm sure there are highlights.

We have a heap of Scandinavians on these forums don't we? Don't be shy, tell us what you think.

How do Europeans feel about American games? English speaking countries pick up on them, but i don't about mainland Europe. Marketing to Asia may be a waste of time, with apathy towards American games in Japan (although the market is growing i hear), and mainland Asia having a big piracy problem.

Western Europe enforces IP laws, probably just as well as the USA. Western and Northern Europe could be a goldmine.

Hellooo, I'm a Scandinavian! And Denmark isn't exactly the type of place that Skyrim has been described as in the past, so I doubt there's anything to the "Denmark is being used as inspiration for Skyrim"-idea. You'd need to look further North for more Skyrim-type countries; Sweden, Finland and Norway, namely, and also Northern Russia. There's 25cm of snow outside my window right now, I'm in Southern Finland.

In Europe people play mostly American games. At least in Finland we get all of the major American games at pretty much the same time the Americans do. I've lived in the States too, and I don't really notice much difference between American and Finnish game selections in game stores. So I think American games have pretty much infiltrated Scandinavia already, as far as I know. Probably most of the other European areas too, because Finland is usually miles behind all the other countries in just about everything.

[Bigze Stacks]

For any game with English audio, a lot. Think of the most flat and uninteresting accent you can. It has no variations in tone, and an extremely basic, unvaried pronunciation of every single syllable. That is the Danish accent. If any developer wants a Scandinavian accent in their game, they'll go for either Swedes, Norwegians or very well trained Americans. And I'm not even exaggerating.

Boring landscape and boring accent and language. Denmark might be screaming for an escapist game like TESV

Hellooo, I'm a Scandinavian! And Denmark isn't exactly the type of place that Skyrim has been described as in the past, so I doubt there's anything to the "Denmark is being used as inspiration for Skyrim"-idea. You'd need to look further North for more Skyrim-type countries; Sweden, Finland and Norway, namely, and also Northern Russia. There's 25cm of snow outside my window right now, I'm in Southern Finland.

In Europe people play mostly American games. At least in Finland we get all of the major American games at pretty much the same time the Americans do. I've lived in the States too, and I don't really notice much difference between American and Finnish game selections in game stores. So I think American games have pretty much infiltrated Scandinavia already, as far as I know. Probably most of the other European areas too, because Finland is usually miles behind all the other countries in just about everything.

Thanks.

If i had some of the research that gamesas has on their markets, we could speculate on so much, not just what event it's going to be unveiled at. TES isn't a game, it's potentially billions of dollars of combined costs and profits.

Americans might not mind the http://www.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=oblivion%20cathedrals&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=556, but someone who lives in Holland http://www.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=cathedral%20in%20holland&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=556. If gamesas wants higher European sales, we might speculate that we will see a more ambitious landscape than Oblivion, purely from a marketing perspective, not an artistic one.

[Trevi]

US and Europe have more or less the same "western" mentality, basically if a game is successful in the US it's successful here. The same thing can't always be said viceversa though.

I think it will be announced soon-ish, then they will show it off a lot at E3 and QuakeCon to get everyone even more hyped up and will probably release it in late 2011. Which would be perfect IMO, time to show it off and time to polish it.

[Haley Cooper]

I still think IGN knows something we don't, I mean honestly. Why put it up as a rumor in the search engine I have NEVER seen that done before, and they actually have it listed as rumor on the side which is their place holder for a game when you look it up. It just baffles me,

Look, if IGN or indeed any of the other sites knew anything, they'd have no reason not to post their info. It coming up on multiple sites means NOTHING.

Unless I'm totally mistaken and I'm going to get raged at for the third time

[Davorah Katz]

You guys, check this out, seriously. http://www.spike.com/video/spike-vgas-be-first/3500340 go to 00:07, right after the point where it says LOOK CLOSER. Stop at the white square with black pixels in it, and zoom out using Ctrl and -. Zoom out until you can still see the square, so don't zoom out too far. If you look closely, the black pixels form a dragon. This would refer to the rumor about the Dragon Lord, aka Akavir. This ob(li)viously means that they are going to show The Elder Scrolls V at the Spike VGA's. This looks really legitimate, check it out and tell me what you guys think. This hint was discoverd by Elmir Visser (ReincarnationOfSheogorath).

[dean Cutler]

You guys, check this out, seriously. http://www.spike.com/video/spike-vgas-be-first/3500340 go to 00:07, right after the point where it says LOOK CLOSER. Stop at the white square with black pixels in it, and zoom out using Ctrl and -. Zoom out until you can still see the square, so don't zoom out too far. If you look closely, the black pixels form a dragon. This would refer to the rumor about the Dragon Lord, aka Akavir. This ob(li)viously means that they are going to show The Elder Scrolls V at the Spike VGA's. This looks really legitimate, check it out and tell me what you guys think. This hint was discoverd by Elmir Visser (ReincarnationOfSheogorath).

I've been looking at it for ages, still cant make it out. But good find none the less.

[Britney Lopez]

I've been looking at it for ages, still cant make it out. But good find none the less.

All in the left is the head, maybe now you can see it

[Melanie Steinberg]

You guys, check this out, seriously. http://www.spike.com/video/spike-vgas-be-first/3500340 go to 00:07, right after the point where it says LOOK CLOSER. Stop at the white square with black pixels in it, and zoom out using Ctrl and -. Zoom out until you can still see the square, so don't zoom out too far. If you look closely, the black pixels form a dragon. This would refer to the rumor about the Dragon Lord, aka Akavir. This ob(li)viously means that they are going to show The Elder Scrolls V at the Spike VGA's. This looks really legitimate, check it out and tell me what you guys think. This hint was discoverd by Elmir Visser (ReincarnationOfSheogorath).

Sorry, that's wrong. I looked at that, and it's some kind of 2D barcode. You're seeing things.

Anyway, when decoded, it links you to a page - this one:

http://m.spike.com/lookcloser.rbml;jsessionid=x5C1Fv8BcisaoRo2g6POGQ**

Which according to VeryEvilDudeofDarkness, is a BioWare tease.

No dice

[Fanny Rouyé]

Looks more to me like 'TES' going diagonally down and right from the T in the top left corner, to a partially obscured E in the middle and an S in the bottom right.

But the barcode thing is probably more accurate

[Claudia Cook]

Alright just so we can straighten things out with the whole barcode thing. It's an Activision teaser. There's apparently 3 different pages: one that says "Murder," one that says "Your," and another that says "Maker."

http://www.vg247.com/2010/11/26/activision-teases-murder-your-maker-for-vgas/#more-131499

So it seems Activison and Bioware are doing these puzzle game teaser things. I wish Bethesda would jump on the bandwagon to give us some fun speculation.

[ladyflames]

I'm danish, and as much as I'd like it I'm afraid we don't have the enviroment for Skyrim. Skyrim (AFAIK) is a rocky and snowy landscape (mountains etc). We don't really have that here. It's a pretty country but very flat. But yeah, Nords are based on Vikings (who originate from Denmark) so it's a possibility.

[OJY]

I'm danish, and as much as I'd like it I'm afraid we don't have the enviroment for Skyrim. Skyrim (AFAIK) is a rocky and snowy landscape (mountains etc). We don't really have that here. It's a pretty country but very flat. But yeah, Nords are based on Vikings (who originate from Denmark) so it's a possibility.

Well of course much of the land will be rocky/mountainous/snowy, but TES games, like most other open world games, like to have varied landscapes. Even if most of the province is littered with mountains and valleys, there will still be some parts of the land that are flatter. Take Oblivion, Morrowind, or even World of Warcraft for example. The land needs to be varied to keep the world interesting; even mountains and valleys will get boring eventually if they are all covered in snow and look exactly alike. If Beth employees were trying to get the feel of Denmark in their game it would probably only be in very small parts of the game, all of Skyrim will not look like Denmark.

You're all right by the way, the chances are very small that the Beth employees were sent over specifically to get an idea of the land. There are many reasons why that makes no sense whatsoever, I just think that there is a possibility. I am arguing this partially because I enjoy playing the part of the devil's advocate and partially because I think Denmark is beautiful, but feel free to ignore or argue my points at your leisure.

[Greg Swan]

I'm 98% sure we will see an announcement at the VGA's. I would be seriously surprised if Bethesda didn't jump at the opportunity to get such huge publicity for TESV. I mean they've been ready to show the game off for months. Why would they even consider waiting any longer?

[Lilit Ager]

Maybe when that GI guy tweeted the February cover is something we've been waiting 4ever he was referencing the 4th era which is when TESV will mostly likely take place.

[Michelle Chau]

I'm 98% sure we will see an announcement at the VGA's. I would be seriously surprised if Bethesda didn't jump at the opportunity to get such huge publicity for TESV. I mean they've been ready to show the game off for months. Why would they even consider waiting any longer?

98% seems a bit high to me. They would be smart to jump on the opportunity, but they most likely already have an elaborate marketing scheme in effect. I am giving them more like a 65% chance, which is more than enough reason for me to watch the VGAs.

[Gemma Flanagan]

Maybe when that GI guy tweeted the February cover is something we've been waiting 4ever he was referencing the 4th era which is when TESV will mostly likely take place.

Or... He had no more room to type "forever".

[des lynam]

Although the VGA's are popular, it's somewhat of a scoffed at event. I think Bethesda is going to stay away with announcing it there. I think they might just stick with the website announcement and Gameinformer reveal. It's been working for them.

[yermom]

Or... He had no more room to type "forever".

I tried that on twitter though and I had enough room to fit it.