Yea it should be a good couple months. Some more info in a couple weeks and then E3 in June!

I actually think they started working on Skyrim right after Oblivion, conceptualizing and prototyping the tech. Stuff that they didn't really need in Fallout 3, since it was built on an already existing engine.

Even assuming they did start from nothing after Fallout 3, the actual duration in man-hours for Skyrim are several times higher than Oblivion or Fallout 3.

Skyrim has been in production longer then most games... even MMORPGs for that matter, I don't think there is anything to worry about with the time span. Also it'll be a few months longer then 4 years by the time the game is slated for release... not 3. 3 Years for most games would be considered a long product life cycle, a lot of games are usually intended to be in the 1~2 year area (without pre-production what would also push Skyrim to over 6 years development).. some companies have tried to go for shorter development cycles tho it usually ends in failure by the end *cough*3DO*cough*.

Also from what we have heard/seen the team is far bigger then it was in Oblivion and this time they are using their own engine (rather then using the gamesbro engine), meaning they probably have a much better idea of what content they can get to work in it then they did with Oblivion/Fallout 3.

I agree with you, but if they did start after Fallout 3, that will be 3 years not 4 when it is released. Fallout 3 was released October 2008. That would be a little over 3 years come 11.11.11.

ye i read from somewhere that they had been working on it as Oblivion game out... (like 5 years?)

Ah, opps (sorry) on my part, you are right. Still remember that Fallout 3 only came out 2 and a half years after Oblivion... and fallout 3 while not as rich as oblivion in terms of major story lines, did still have a lot of well written content... oh tranquility lane... what fun ^^.

I agree. Skyrim will release on 11.11.11. It will be legendary.

Sure, it made me feel better when it was only COD. Now the story is a little different, now there are two giant games competing and not just one big seller, actually make that three since Skyrim will be a giant as well.

Even though COD and BF3 are a different type of genre, gamers play both many times.
Like it or not most gamers have a budget and they have to choose which they want the most at the time, that could mean a loss in sales in either direction for those gamers that OTHERWISE would buy the game, but instead prefer the other.

There is no doubt that the bottom line in sales WILL be suffering for any or all of these game releases cause of 3 major releases all within a week. Then again there is always Xmas sales later on to pick up the slack in sales I guess.

The thing is, for the last 2 years almost all games migrated into the next year cause of that damn COD game, they moved cause they didn't want to compete with the gamer dollar, now it will be even more stiff competition.
Granted that Skyrim is a different genre and it won't suffer as much, but for anyone to think that a BF3 player would never have considered Skyrim cause he happens to play FPS games as well, well that is stupid.
In a slower month there would be more of those sales.

Personally I only care that Skyrim comes out on the 11th of November I know I will buy it.

Only reason I react, is because of the trend in the last two years, there were no games to buy for Xmas cause they all fled the coup.

I wouldn't mind delays if the game is going to be better.I could take up to 6 months of delay.Yep,I'm patient.After that,I'd start thinking something is not right.
But I'm not expecting since they chose 11.11.11 as the date.That is SOO fixed.They'll release it on the day even if the game is missing one leg.XD

Yes thats true they have a much larger team than they did with Oblivion.

Todd Howard said that they have been working on the game since they finished Oblivion. I asume that most of the work before FO3 have been about the story and preparing how they should manage the time. In general they used the time they worked on FO3 preparing for Skyrim. That's just my guess, though.

If bethesda only works fully on only one game at a time, then I'm quite confident they will be able to hit the 11/11/11 target date. Just look at fallout 3. It took 2 years and a half to produce. From the release of Oblivion in March 2006 to its release in November 2008. So 3 years of FULL development is more then enough for an epic Game as proven by Fallout 3.

Todd Howard said half of Oblivion's developers went to work on Skyrim and the other half worked on Fallout 3, when F3 was finished I think they joined the other half on Skyrim and left New Vegas to Obsidian.

Pete and his marketing department aren't naive. I'm sure they had a lot of discussions about potential November releases. They knew COD would be releasing and they probably figured Mass Effect 3 and a couple other big games would drop in November. They aren't concerned. That means i'm not concerned.

I've read somewhere that Bethesda actually started developing Skyrim in 2007.

Overlap, bigger team, and don't you think they may have learned something in 15 years on how to make a game?. And if you really want to have a little cry about the tiny, non-game changing bugs that so many people complain about 'ruining' the game then go ahead.

Bethesda is very good at pumping out Bethesda-style games. You can bet they have a highly organized system in which tasks are compartmentalized into bite-size chunks with dedicated teams handling each. And now that those teams have been beefed up with more people (and experience), I don't they'll have a problem finishing the game on time. Todd seems very confident about the schedule.

However, if Skyrim does get delayed, then we'll just have to wait for 12-12-12

This.



And this