The fact is times have changed since Bethesda started. The #1 reason they cater to the consoles is that console games are very difficult to pirate. This means 60 bucks per user, not 1 dollar per user after 59 of them pirate it on the PC. If they ditched consoles and went all out for a good PC game they would risk going out of business. The money is in the consoles and this is a money driven business. Even the stores are catering to consoles they have huge sections of console games and one little bit for PC games. So shelf space is limited making it even harder to succeed as a PC developer.

Sure there's lots of 360 users who buy the PC version later, and we all know the PC version rules, but until they can come up with a way to make PC games nearly pirate proof I don't think things will change much.

I predict in the future they will switch to an MMO style of game so that they can update the world with new content and get monthly subscriptions. This is the only way to stop piracy and create residual income. This would be the end of mods though. Hopefully if they do this, it will be a new branch of elder scrolls game and they continue with the normal franchise.

I find the tripe that piracy is the primary problem with computer games utterly impossible to believe. Console games sell far better, but it is not because of piracy. It's because casual users - who are less demanding and picky about their games - tend to play consoles. They're simple, you turn them on and put in the disk, and that's it. There is no installing, patching is automatic, and you don't have to use the computer, which is still something a lot of people avoid doing.

Piracy is not the culprit here. It hurts PC sales, no doubt, but the differences between console and PC sales differ by far too much for piracy to be more than a secondary factor.

Do you seriously believe that? Piracy is no different on a console and no matter how hard it is to crack it's still going to be done and there is no stopping it unless games stop being made. I totally agree with DragoonWraith, It's not piracy that's the problem, it's that people are stupid and even in 2010 computer illiteracy is still a big thing. I would say cost too, but that isn't an excuse really since all consoles are just dumbed down but well optimized computers (hence the cost)

I actually worded my post a little bit incorrect. But in essence, sales for PC games have diminished for a variety of reasons. Piracy, limited shelf space, and yes, console games sell better because they are more accessible. Yes you can pirate a console game, but not without some mod chip and massive know how. PC games can be pirated by complete idiots with very little know how, so pc game piracy is much worse than console piracy.

I actually know people that work at all major studios and the bottom line is DOLLARS and I discussed the whole console thing with many of them. I am a professional in the game industry, although smaller than what I was in the past. When graphics went nextgen in around 2004-2006 requiring normal maps, specular maps, a high poly model, a low poly model, etc development costs skyrocketed. The days of a 20-30 man team making a half way decent game in two or three years vanished. It went from a few million to make a game, to 20 and up. So in order to recoup these huge investments, games had to be made as accessible as possible, so multi platform is king. Sadly this takes a toll on the quality of any specific version, like PC version.