As per the title, I often wonder if the extra 12-18 months dedicated to post-release DLC isn't simply delaying future Bethesda games for longer than the DLC is worth. Think of it this way: if the Skyrim DLC hadn't been released, the next Bethesda title would be almost 18 months ahead of where it is now - pressumably putting it somewhere between announcement and release. Theoretically, you could be playing Fallout 4 or TES VI right now.

Now I'm not saying to get rid of DLC, but think of this: why can't they pass DLC production onto another team? I always want BGS to work on the core/vanilla game, and even the engine (despite their reputation), but once the vanilla title is released another dev team only needs the Creation Kit to build all future content; so as long as Todd Howard et al still oversaw the production I'd be happy to have the DLC passed on to, say, Arkane Studios, while BGS goes onto the next major project.

I enjoyed Skyrim's DLC, but if each day spent on that delayed the next BGS title by even half a day, it'd hardly be worth it - especially if I can have my cake and eat it too, by letting another dev work on post-launch content. Thoughts?

You appear to assume that the entire 100-person development staff of Bethesda Gaming Studios works on only one project at a time and then moves, en masse, to the next project. This is not how Bethesda operates. Going back at least as far back as Morrowind, they have always split their staff into teams, working on various projects simultaneously.

They were already working on Oblivion before they released either the Tribunal or Bloodmoon expansions for Morrowind. I'm sure they were working on Skyrim before the Fallout 3 expansions were released. Likewise, if most of the employees are busy working on Fallout 4 right now you can bet that some are already hard at work on TES VI.

No. I would like to see Bethesda Softworks and the 7 video game development companies that Bethesda Softworks owns publish and release completed video games for sale and not cut any content out to sell for DLC's and then start working on DLC's and release the DLC's in patches for free and sell Expansion Packs only which are bigger than the main video game itself or about the same size as the main video game itself.

Bethesda Softworks and the 7 video game development companies that they own should start taking notes from CD Projket RED on how DLC's and Expansion Packs should be sold.