heh, you don't have to apologize my friend. It's quite possible that I wasn't the first to say something along the TESting your knowledge speculation guess. It wouldn't surprise me at all if I was even stating the obvious, which I do a lot. Heh. Have one on me. :foodndrink: By the way, you did do an EXCELLENT job of summarizing the speculations so far.

arent we overanolizing the whole TESting your knowledge theory? Who knows, mabie Gstaff was sitting in his office, with a dozen signed copies of Infernal City, and was all like, crap! How do I get rid of these? I know!
Trivia!

I mean honestly, anything we think of is probably by default wrong.

I don't know about you guys, but considering we know that it has to be announced before October, I'm subscribing to Game Informer so I'll get the TESV edition quickly when it's revealed :dance:

My thoughts exactly, xXAntibodyXx.
I want mah info before you guyiz. :S

Hey guys,

So GDC is over. No announcement. E3 maybe?

You should really just call me Antibody, it's easier

Cool, I'm glad to see someone else's eyes on the trademark law. For the most part I'm with you 100%, but I'm curious where in the code you got the 12 weeks from 'Publication of Opposition' until a 'Notice of Allowance' is given. I read 30 days from 'Publication of Opposition', which is what I factored in to get July 19th. Is it that an opposing party has 12 weeks from PoO to file an opposition (which wouldn't have any bearing on when a NoA is issued)? On the other hand, I thought 30 days looked a bit short, so twelve weeks at first glance seems like a better number.

Either way, I concur with your range. I might tighten in up a bit to June-September, but you have to admit that it's still pretty cool we have to "debate" on a couple months for when an announcement is going to occur.


To IglooGreenhouse: Yeah, I agree that the TESting your knowledge trivia isn't very convincing on its own - which is why I put it lower on the list - but it definitely adds to the overall momentum that is building toward an Elder Scrolls title announcement. I did enjoy your alternative explanation, though! ^_^

Yeah I bet he is! And all the developers are getting back from the GDC and looking at this thread and laughing at all of us and our silly hopes and dreams. One intern might, MIGHT, pipe up and ask, "So, ummm, shouldn't we let them know soon about TES V?" And the marketing department comments, "Wait, HOLD ON A JUST A SEC!!!!, What is this TES V of which you speak of. OK! WHO TOLD THE INTERN!!?" There you go, G-nite ladies and gentlemen! Heh

C'mon intern, leak that info!

Well the Publication of Opposition exists so that other parties can oppose it. So the 30 days is the amount of time the USTPO gives for people to oppose it, and if nobody does, then they send out a Notice of Allowance. And after they get the Notice of Allowance they have 6 months to file for an Extension if they don't plan on filing a Statement of Use.

In the 8th paragraph of http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/process/status/next.jsp you'll see that it says:



But it's hard to give an exact range because we don't know if it actually took 12 weeks or not. I still say they have until October, maybe November. But we know for sure that if they don't announce it before November 1st the trademark will have expired and we wont be seeing an announcement for another year or longer.

So, at current estimates an announcement puts us before July, for trademark speculations, lets just say the last day they could possibly announce (If they are making) Skyrim is July 15 2010. Just for speculation's sakes.
It cannot obviously have been announced in the past.
It probably wont be announced for at least a month, giving it would take the thunder away from http://bethblog.com/index.php/2010/03/15/hunted-the-demons-forge-announced/ they just made, and besides they just revamped the forums, so they probably dont want a flood of new forumers right away. So lets just say at least not for a month.
Today is March 15
That leaves them three months exactly, or give or take 90 days to announce something.
Thats:
3 issues of Game informer (april is already out)
Pax East (I think I doubt this one)
and..... E3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So let the speculation continue.

Well I'd adjust the issues of GameInformer left by a bit:

May (would come out in April)
June
July
August
September
October
November

So there are 7 issues left.

As for E3, or any game conference, I don't think it matters. Bethesda never shows off TES games at conferences until E3, however it's always the E3 the year after it was announced.

I'm referring to the issues from now to July, so
May
June
July.
Three.

And Bethesda could announce at E3, theres always a first time.

Ok, how about we compromise and say 5

Well I'm personally referring to the issues until October, because that's the absolute final date until the trademark expires, but you can say 3 if you want.

And they could announce it at E3, after all, they are big enough. They could also do it at QuakeCon in August and TGS in September. Who knows. :shrug:

The expiration is in October?
My mistake.
And Qakecon is a possibility.

4 1/2 years after Oblivion's release for an announcement? The gap between Oblivion and TES V will probably be as large as the gap between Daggerfall and Morrowind. How good will TES V be in terms of technological limitations(graphics, animations, game mechanics, scripting, AI)? Is it not possible that TES V to be released for the next generation of consoles? I know Sony and Microsoft said they aren't nearly finished with their current consoles, but couldn't they have easily lied? Did they do the same thing with the last generation of consoles? The current consoles are showing their age, and Microsoft is insane if they honestly think the 360 will last(as their main console) until 2015.

I had been reading directly from the code (http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/law/CFR_12-28-09_tmlaw2.pdf) for my estimates, which says NOTHING about a 12 week period after the Publication of Opposition. So after reading through the pertinent sections of the code and the website you cited (thank you), what I think this number is referring to is more of an internal processing time, and they estimate it way long to cover their butts. It is still a factor to consider since it is not until they receive the Notice of Allowance that the timer begins on their extensions. Therefore, I will modify my estimate as a range from July 19th to October 11th so as to account for the possible extra processing time. However, I lean closer to July than October.

It really isn't possible for it to be for the next generation of consoles. Not even Nintendo is thinking about the next generation yet. Maybe one of the three is lying, but all three? Nah. If TESV is announced this year, it should be out in 2011 or 2012, and it's really unlikely we'll even see the next generation revealed before 2013.



That could be. But hey, at least we can agree that no matter who's right, it will expire in 2010, so we should see an announcement sometime in 2010. :shrug:

I'll drink to that! :foodndrink:

So, will TES V break a tradition of TES series, having amazing graphics for its time? I have heard that PCs are already far ahead of the current generation of consoles.

A proper gaming PC will always better than a console. So you shouldn't really care that the consoles aren't as good as PCs, because when the next console generation comes out, video cards in PCs will still be better.

But no, that doesn't mean it wont have amazing graphics for it's time. We wont know until we see it for ourselves, but I'm sure Bethesda is capable of making a great looking game.

Recall that they claimed they would support those consoles for a long time, but also recall that Sony supportedt he PS2 for the longest time (or are they still?) because of its HUGE selling power, as it was still selling extremely well even after the PS3 was released.

Although I do doubt if we will be getting a new console any time soon, because this whole generation, besides Nintendo's blowout sales, was a big loss to both Microsoft and Sony, who are just now barely starting to make a real profit.

Yeah, the whole console thing is a big unknown variable to me in all my wild speculation. Though I've hardly touched a console, from my peripheral perspective it seems that the current generation is way past its prime. Releasing a game at the tale end of a console's cycle seems risky, but perhaps they're banking on the next generation not coming out long enough to give them time to develop another title by then.

I'm pretty sure Bethesda is going to try and make Fallout 4 a launch title for the next generation. But judging by everything I've seen regarding the future console generation, TESV will be in this generation.

Erm, the 360 is definitely not passed it's "prime". They have stated in recent interviews within this last year that the power a 360 can dish out hasn't even been tapped into yet.

The average PC in 2005 or 2006 or was more powerful than a 360 or a PS3? I know some PCs will always be more powerful than a console, but what about the average one, the one that games are designed for(so people can actually play it)? If the average PC in 2005 or 2006 was better than a 360 or a PS3, then the current consoles are really far behind and should be dead by now. When 360s and PS3s first came, their graphical capabilities were amazing, right? Now, 4-5 years later, people have said that they can't handle anything more advanced than what they already handle.