exactly!!! yes!!

I'd be more than surprised if we didn't get some sort of announcement by E3...

I'd be disappointed actually

Big surprise there.
If it's not announced, this thread will go back to the endless, pointless rants at Bethesda and long periods of nothingness. Anyway, it's a couple of days until the GI cover is announced, so we'll see what happens there.

I would love to see the next game on GameInformer.
That would make my #$%^ Year.

Bethesda does not have a choice in the matter. If they don't announce it in the summer, their trademark expires. And if that happens, they'll have to wait around 6 months, maybe more, to get the Notice of Allowance for a new trademark, and only after that do they have the ability to announce it.

Think about it, what makes more business sense, announcing the game now and being able to keep their trademark, or not announcing it, causing them to have to spend money to get a new trademark and lose the ability to announce it for half a year?

Bethesda doesn't have to give us a release date. If they don't want to delay it, they simply don't have to give us a date until they're sure of it.

^ Sums it all up ^

Just watched the 'Making of Oblivion' DVD that came with the Collector's Edition. The documentary focued on the team working their asses off to get Oblivion looking perfect and complete, with a playable demo, for the very first unveil at E3. If they follow that same plan for TES:V, then we'll get an announcement with a few screens soon, and a game that looks damn close to completion in June with reviewers posting hands-on previews.

Fingers crossed.

I agree completely here. We can debate endlessly with our speculation on when TES:V (IF that's their game) was started, but we're not gonna know that with much certainty or precision. However, we have much more certainty of an announcement - which in my opinion is the quintessential point of this thread.

Just because I can't resist adding my two cents... I think the game's start date perhaps depends on what is meant by "start". For me, they started when they they decided what the next game would be - however tepid and slowly the development may progress. For others, it seems, their start date is when a large bulk of their team begins building assets.

As for the random posts by ignorant people who don't bother to read what we already know... :banghead:

:hugs: Don't worry, I feel the same way about people who think 'the north' is just snow and mountains. Just shows their ignorance.

We're so close to April now! If that GI cover really is the holy grail, I can't wait to tear apart some screenshots!

As I said before, it could be released anywhere from April 3-11. It will most likely be shown earlier than the 8th, but you still need to make a reasonable estimate

Forget April and forget E3. I am excited for the end of today! (Monday, March 30)

Is no one else secretly hoping for a book announcement or some other tasty morcel with the final TESting winner reveal? If not today, this quiz game should lead to something -- perhaps by the end of the week. It MUST go somewhere!

I'm thinking book announcement, then TESV announcement, then E3 details, then book release, then TESV release. All dominos start falling today!

Edit: In hindsight, TESting could easily lead to the April 3-8 cover. That would make lots of sense. You guys have got this all figured out, I think.

Yeah, I thought that the TESting stuff would end this Friday (April 2nd), which would lead to 'maybe' a Game Informer cover release the next day.

Good: After April 2nd, both the book and the game will be announced.

Okay: After April 2nd, just the book is released

Bad: After April 2nd, nothing happens :banghead:

EDIT!!! I looked up the stuff for the Game Informer cover past releases. I didn't show when the April issue was released, which was March 5th. http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/7219/picture1avr.png

Now some simple math: 5+16+8+8+5=42/5=8.4...
April 8-9... Now cut out outliers: 5+8+8+5=26/4= 6.5
April 6-7. I'm going to school to think more -.-

um. if you'll go to the gameinformer.com you'll probable see that, if i'm not mistaken, next cover will be....... InFamous. or maybe it's just filler

That would be pretty odd considering that game was released at least a year ago

That's just the cover art they use for the subscription area, after all, they have to use something.

so, in other words, this week is going to drag by, slowly?

Meh, I fear that what we may have here constructed in our hands is perhaps more likely a demonstration of our ability to synthesize circumstantial data into something appearing more substantial than it is in reality. In other words, we may just be witnessing an unfortunate set of coincidences (Game Informer, E3, TESting Your Knowledge) that may not materialize into what we hope or think we see.

There's no indication the next game informer magazine will have anything to do with ES V. Everyone keeps forgetting that it's the site update, not the magazine, that's supposed to blow "us" (whoever that may be) away.

Nor is there any evidence that anything will be presented at E3 (Bethesda has yet to reveal a game at E3, if I recall correctly).

Nor is there any evidence that TESting your knowledge is leading to anything at all.

All we've got right now is the trademark stuff.

Heh... like conspiracy theorists, only this time we want the conspiracy to be true

People need to calm down and realize:

-You guys took my joke about the GameInformer update way too seriously. It was a joke about how we over-anolyze everything, and you guys wound up over-anolyzing it.

-There are 4 Game Informer magazines left before the trademark expires, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment after disappointment if you keep thinking the next one will be it, or the next one, or the next one...

-Them showing it at E3 is very very unlikely, sure it could happen but they've never done it before. Though before Oblivion saying it would be on the cover of Game Informer would be a stretch too. Just don't expect anything because in all likelihood nothing will happen.

-TESting could very well just be a fun thing Bethesda wanted to do for the community, it doesn't have to mean anything more. Though it would be nice if the book is announced when it ends.

-The only think we know for sure is that the trademark expires on July 31st. Who knows, they may let that trademark expire and instead reveal their new IP, Barbie's Horse Adventures: The Last Unicorn. Though we would see them trademark it first.

I could see a book 2 announcement along with the final answer, but almost surely not the game.

We'll share the winner/answer of the last trivia question this week, but that's it. There's no secret agenda to TESting Your Knowledge. We had signed copies of The Infernal City and we wanted to find a way to give them out...so we came up with the trivia idea. We're always looking for ways to give away stuff on the blog (posters, books, etc),

Well thanks for clearing that up, at least you saved a few people from being disappointed on Friday.

Oh my God... OH MY GOD! The world is ending! Gstaff gave a straight answer to something!!

Kidding, but still. I didn't particularly expect anything. It was a clever way to unload some signed books.

Or... a fully functional alpha version of TESV was included in a pocket of the back cover of each signed copy. Secret method for recruiting playtesters who are sworn to never reveal what they know. Just speculation.

Gstaff, we can has TES:V?

I wonder what Gstaff knows. He must know something about TES V.