Well, according to the rumors that have surfaced regarding the MMO, it was supposed to have been announced in 2009. It's possible that it will be announced before E3, and then shown at E3 2010. You're right that the two games can't overlap too much, however I think that an announcement in early 2010 for the MMO, and an announcement in late 2010 for TESV would work. If the MMO comes out sometime in 2011, Bethesda would be free to release TESV in 2012.

Bethesda is working on it and I'm sure it will come out next year, this is most likely a clever business ploy to generate interest. The Elder Scroll's series is Bethesda's main income provider I'm sure it is at least when it comes to games and I doubt the Fallout franchise could ever replace it. They will most likely announce it at the end of the year.

Also why create speculation threads if they are not at least preparing for it, they can see how many people are interested in it and what they wish added to the series.

Here's hoping for a great game which we all enjoy, and soon! (unlikely) . . .

But with closed betas, open betas and all, the time between announcement and release is usually much longer with MMORPGs. In WOW's case it was 3 years between announcement and release, and in Warhammer Online's at least 2.5 years (actually 4 years but at one point the project was canceled and then license re-sold to EA Mythic). So there's no chance Elder Scrolls Online will be out in 2011 already.

I'm sure an Elder Scrolls Online announcement and first showings still would fit in your schedule to enable a TESV release in 2012. But I'm still hoping for TESV in 2011 and for that it all feels too tight, it would perhaps be too much Elder Scrolls stuff for people to melt in 1.5 years.

When Todd said "don't expect the next Elder Scrolls anytime soon" (or something) I am afraid that that's also a sign that they'll let the Zenimax MMO (Elder Scrolls Online) to be announced first.

Todd said "Don't look a new Elder Scrolls game in the near future." This was at QuakeCon 2009, the article that I found that reports it is dated in mid August. I don't know about everyone else's but my interpretation of near future for this kind of thing is between 6 months and a year. I believe that we can now expect a new TES considering its been quite some time now and given E3 is coming up, and it would cost them money to renew the Skyrim trademark if it expired in August* (or at least some news).

*Even if they did just renew it then we would then know it were a top priority trademark worth much to the company, hinting towards a new game.

We know that already...

The question is not if TESV will come, the question is only when. It's been in development for a long time.

I hope that when TESV comes out I will still be interested in playing the game. I must be honest. I'm a bit burnt out on playing Morrowind and Oblivion over and over. And now I'm a bit burnt out waiting to even know if Beth is officially working on the game. I don't think I've ever observed such a long online speculation/anticipation experience with absolutely no information to speculate about. Kind of frustrating. Unless Beth releases some info in the next couple months, I think by the time the game comes out many original TES fan will have moved on (jobs, bill, responsibilities, etc) and the younger games will not give a [censored]. I hope that isn't the case, but it's been feeling that way for a while. I think I'm just getting pist. Sorry for the rant. Why did I post this?

For all those complaining about Bethesda's secrecy look at this website http://elderscrolls5wishes.webs.com/ "I need everyone to go to this website ( http://www.gamesas.com/eng/contact_email.php ) and request that look at this site! If they dont see it, we will never get what we want." How would bethesda get important e-mails with a hundred e-mails running through there inboxes. Im sure the've gotten thousands of these e-mails and its much harder to make TES V with these people annoying bethesda.

This is just stupid it will be like 10 bloody years until tesv comes out. lets face it its not comin out this year or any time soon

Care to back it up with more than just pessimism?

The Skyrim trademark which expires this August unless Bethesda files a Statement of Use, coupled with increased developer media activity, length of time since their last release of a title, the release of an ES novel with one more to come, etc, etc, etc. These are all indicators of potential movement and mobilization from Bethesda. Never mind that they're certainly not being paid to sit around the office since the release of Oblivion and Fallout 3.

I doubt that it will be released this year. However, I find a potential announcement this year quite likely. If it happens, great. If not, then it's not devastating. I don't find it stupid to recognize potential announcement times that corroborate with collected facts and anecdotal information.

to clarify i meant that it is stupid how long it is taking bethesda to release or even announce es v and i still believe it wont be announced this year even though i would love it if it was but the main reason for me being so negetive is that i am just pissed and have a killer hang over right now

fair enough, fair enough.

ya, but any ways just to be positive.............. es v is gonna be announced tomorow and released in 3 months and have no bugs thats what i think

Well obviously . . .

I think it will either came out late next year or early 2012, we may get an announcement this holiday season. I don't care if it takes five years just for the love of God raise your hand and say were making it and here's an early screen shot or three!

Does Bethesda hate their fans? FFS leak some info. It's been [censored] years with "they will probly release it at E3", "I know they are working on ESV" "We have no proof" "It's coming before 2012" etc etc etc and etc. And etc.

Do like Apple.......

You know what would be nice? An announcement of an announcement, like http://www.vg247.com/2010/02/22/capcom-planning-huge-announcement-for-april/. All Bethesda would have to say is "Expect some big news in May!" and we would all stop complaining about there being no information. What's there to complain about when we know when an announcement will be made?

or at least an announcement of an announcement of an announcement

People need to calm down. Bethesda is definitely is making Elder Scrolls V. I would imagine giving Obsidian permission for New Vegas was/is a way for Bethesda to work of TESV while being able to release content for it's fans to keep them busy. The Bethesda team surely isn't just sitting around doing nothing. As stated, the question is when. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for Bethesda to not announce the game til a year before the game comes out. We might not even see any real information til 2011 if the game comes out 2012. We might see some information mid this year if it is coming out 2012 based on Oblivion's development cycle. Anyways, I would guess that TESV would be released 2012. This has been the development cycle of Bethesda recently:
2006: Oblivion
2007: Oblivion DLC and expansion
2008: Fallout 3
2009: Fallout 3 DLC
2010: Fallout: New Vegas

Following that, here's what I think the next two years willprobably look like:
2011: New Vegas DLC and/or TES Online
2012: TES V

There's plenty of stuff to keep us busy. There's Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and this fall New Vegas. Perhaps you can try out Daggerfall and Arena if you haven't already. There's also other games besides TES and Fallout games out there.

The people who are getting impatient are those who want less Fallout and more Elder Scrolls. Now, New Vegas will be keeping me happy until TESV comes out, but the people who prefer the ES series have been waiting quite a while for a new ES game with nothing but a half-finished book to tide them over. It's understandable that they'd be impatient. That's not to say they should be so visibly impatient, but keep in mind that more Fallout doesn't necessarily mean happier ES fans.

I find this quote hilarious. We can't possibly know in what region the game will take place? True, but we have reason to believe it will be in Skyrim (although I hope it won't).

6 months? I can live with that.

Totally agree with this statement. Yea I had fun playing fallout 3 but it came nowhere near to the experience a TES game brings me. So, filling that void with fallout would'nt do much. IMO beth owes it to their loyal fans to atleast let us know that the game they are working on is in fact TES V. I would have never expected if you told me 3 years ago that 2 fallout games with be released before you even hear word about another TES game.

Seriously.... Fallout was fun and all.... But The Elder Scrolls is so much better, there is so much more to it, and frankly... I can't even tell you how quickly I got bored of Fallout, and I still play Oblivion on a regular basis. Say something? I am getting frustrated with the fact that Bethesda seems so preoccupied with the Fallout series when it has been four years since any real Elder Scrolls stuff has come out....
I do have high hopes for possibly E3 or even GDC. Something, anything would make me happy.

Here's what I believe: ES V has been in development since shortly after Oblivion was released. There is evidence to support this. While I'm sure this "development" was more planning, story line, some concept art, etc (you know trying to figure out what direction they wanted to take the game), I believe some work was being done. It was probably a small team at the time. I remember years ago, during an interview, Todd mentioned that their team was split up into two teams. One to work on Oblivion expansions and the other to work on Fallout 3. Once Fallout 3 was released, I believe that there was another migration back over to the ESV project. This would make sense as over the past several years, we have seen Beth experience some growth. There is some speuculation here of course, but I think this would be a very practical approach. And looking at certain statements Beth has made, it is obvious they are hard at work on this game and that it has been in development, to some degree at least, for quite some time.

Now it has also been mentioned that since Beth really likes to push the limits of technology when they release a TES game, that this is another reason why they would need several years of development time. Oblivion really pushed the existing hardware, and I fully expect ESV to as well. Todd has mentioned time and time again about his vision for emersion is creating the most realistic game world (within reason) as possible. I don't think we can look at how they've done it in the past to predict the release of ESV. This game is going to be released when the hardware is ready for it. I believe they have completely revamped their game engine for this. Now, looking at what current PC's are doing compared to when Oblivion came out, we might be almost ready for this game. Don't get me wrong, this is obviously not all that goes into their decision, but what I am saying, is that we can't look at the span of years between Morrowind and Oblivion to determine when ESV is likely to be released. Technology doesn't work that way. Also, there is always going to be delays in this industry, which would give Beth even more of a reason to delay an announcement. So, if we are in fact looking at a 2011-2012 release, well, that seems about right. That's 5-6 years between games. And PC's have gotten smok'in fast in the last couple years.


Now, this brings up another issue. What about console gaming? Will Beth try to bring this game at the end of the 360's lifecycle. Or wait for a new console and make it a release title for the next gen consoles. That was the original plan with Oblivion, before the game was delayed. All I can say is that if they release it on this generation's consoles, console gamers will most defintely be missing out. That's a guaranteed fact. We've already seen signs of the consoles age when Fallout 3 was released. However, if the rumors are to be believed, and there will be a new Xbox around 2012. Well, then this timeline of release makes perfect sense.

I realize many of this is speculative, so take it for what it's worth. But based on the information we currently have, I believe there is a very good chance that this is how all of this will play out, especially with the recent focus Beth has placed back onto TES.

I would really, REALLY hope that Beth doesn't hang us computer gamers out to dry just to hop on the bandwagon of next-gen consoles. Maybe they could do what they did with Morrowind, and release the PC version first, then work alongside Microsoft/Sony to get TES V out for consoles as they are released.

well since project natal will make xbox life cycle last to 2015 i will hope that they don't release this game around those latter years

Even excluding the Fallout series, there's still all of the other Elder Scrolls series. Plus, there are many ways to just play a single game in the series. Heck, people could even learn to make their own mods to tie them over if they don't know how to do them already, which I plan to do. Plus, Elder Scolls isn't the only gaming series out there. I'm not saying it is illogical to be impatient, because I'm impatient myself. I used to be very impatient as well, but when I played Morrowind, that all changed. Granted a large portion of people already have experienced Morrowind, there is still plenty to do within the Elder Scrolls games and out of the series. Trust me, I would prefer less Fallout, but we take what we are given, right?