Oh man, you and me both. I'm with you 100% on this one.

There's a thread similar to this in the TES general section.

Here's what I posted there:

It's pretty obvious that Zenimax has told Bethesda to shift their focus elsewhere in order to save ZOS from the damage a future elderscrolls title could do to the development and cash flow of ESO.

Think about it! ESO has never had to compete with another Elderscrolls title -- it was released after Skyrim. Any Elderscrolls title would most likely take away a large portion of the ESO fan base for some time as a lot of people play ESO because they want fresh TES content. And the remaining player base, the MMO portion literally has no loyalty to any game... they just go to where their friends are and whatever the next best thing is.

Knowing Bethesda however, they're not major risk takers when it comes to their home-grown IPs... Fallout 4 is a sign of this, and TES VI not coming out at the same time as ESO's life cycle is also another major indicator. So I bet that one of their next titles will be in Akavir but will not even be classified as "The Elderscrolls."

Doing something like this would allow them to indirectly cater to Elderscrolls fans by creating that "morrowind-feeling" game that doesn't directly fight with ESO but also is close enough to the lore that would make it more easily adoptable.

What the other game could be...? No idea.. Maybe Fallout 5.

Space 1889 by GDW?

That was a fun game, bit niche for a new IP I fear but if Bethesda were trying to do something unlike anything their competitors are making it would fit the bill.

I'm still hoping its https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macho_Women_with_Guns

I just want them to do split-screen coop. That's all I ask. No big-shot multiplayer, just you and a friend traversing Tamriel together.

E tu, Mike? So basically, you are suggesting that there will not be a TES6 until after TES:O has run its course. If WoW is any indication, an MMO's lifetime can be decades long. Seems overly pessimistic to assume Zenimax would not want a new big moneymaking title from their best selling series until TES:O dies in 15-20 years, or longer.

On multiplayer. The only form of multiplayer I'd be ok with is an arena hub where players can fight each other for cash payouts. Other players could choose to watch the fights but place bets. I think this would be the most "balanced" aproach to multiplayer without having to worry about balancing the whole game for it.

Any form of multiplayer for the Bethesda Game Studios developed video games would hamper the modding community.

A lot of mods wouldn't be usable, especially if they add in support for a ANIT-CHEAT system.

No. I don't want Bethesda to waste one second of precious development time on multiplayer.

Good point.




Me either. I'm just saying if they got the itch to attempt it, that would be the most I'd be ok with.

That's the one!

I think WoW is an edge case. It's a genre defining game from a company that prides itself on making sustainable multiplayer games. http://www.polygon.com/2016/3/11/11203878/diablo-ii-patch-blizzard-entertainment Even it's worse state (currently at 7.1 mil. subscribers) WoW is slightly ahead of ESO (which is at self-record of 7 mil.)

Zenimax is definitely going to want a new money making cash-cow.. and that's why I think Bethesda would make an Akaviir game. Its close enough to the elderscrolls that you'd hook players and it would be -- most importantly -- a Bethesda game, so people will want to explore that big open world.

If that was their next title, I'd imagine that they'd then jump back on Fallout V before starting TES VI. And once TES VI began development, ZOS would be working on their next great MMO ... potentially Fallout.

Hmm, it could work, I grant you that. At the same time though, I wonder if it would be different enough to justify not just making TES6. One could argue that even if the game is set in Akaviir, it would still technically be an Elderscrolls game and thus counter intuitive to the goal of not providing competition for TES:O.

Tbh I can't see them even thinking about touching the Fallout franchise again until after TES6, if ever again. No hate for the series, I loved every entry, but I feel like we've seen the breadth of the universe, y'know? A lot of nuclear wasteland...

that is not true at all Ballowers... I'd expect someone who claims to have been gaming and modding as long as you do would be familiar with the concept of mod syncing, there are plenty of games with MP options that run mods just fine, it just requires syncs to make sure both users are running the same ones.. if it was possible in the late 90s, its sure as heck possible now..



I don't necessarily want MP in a beth game either, but the whole "Noo! MP would be hurting the modding community" is a blatant lie, created by staunch haters of MP to try and demonize the concept in the minds of others, when in fact as long as it uses simple mod syncing features in the MP mode mods would work just as fine as they do now..



if you don't want MP in a beth game thats perfectly fine, but using "it will hurt mods" as reasoning is absurd because mods can work just fine with games that contain optional multiplayer components (not so much in games with forced multiplayer), I can list some big mods that work just fine in MP if you so desire... of all the possible issues it could arise, mod compatibility is one of the things that wouldn't be an issue at all..



sorry if I sound aggressive here as that is not my intent, but it really gets under my skin when people spread what is essentially propaganda as fact, when if they spent a few minutes looking into the issue they would see its not actually a problem at all..

I'm not talking about regular mods I'm talking about 3rd party utilities and .dll's, stuff like ENB's can get you banned if you use them in video games that have multiplayer.

ENB's get you banned in the Counter-Strike video games, well in Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive they do.

Some PC gamers say it won't ban you, but others advise you not to use it.

Here's one I saved from 2015.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/730/discussions/0/487870763310820508/

A real life friend of mine got banned on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as well for using a ENB.

Make what you will of it.

Torchlight 2 has mod support and multiplayer but it does not work that well since everyone has to be using the same mods and even then it might not work that well if someone has strict NAT which some ISP's do use especially if you are using a cell phone or USB internet stick.

I do not understand the charm of ENB's to me they make the game look a lot worse and you get a performance hit depending on the settings. For multiplayer I think people would stay away from it since performance is a must in the PvP

I think ESO kind of appeals to a slightly different audience, and caters to people who want a multiplayer experience in the Elder Scrolls universe. It also features many areas of Tamriel that will probably never be featured in any main installment (like Black Marsh, for instance), and it is set in the Second Era, which you definitely aren't going to see Todd Howard do.

They don't seem to have any qualms about releasing Skyrim: Special Edition, and I'm pretty sure that BGS has a leash on ESO, however loose it is. There's evidence that ZOS wasn't allowed to use Ebonarm in ESO, for instance, which would be similar to how BGS' writers are also not allowed to acknowledge the existence of Ebonarm in anything that they write (at least, that's what I think Michael Kirkbride implied once, anyway, that basically Ebonarm simply doesn't exist anywhere in the canon lore and that's that). Also, the Ebony Warrior in Skyrim's Dragonborn expansion is most likely a reference to a character in Morrowind's Tribunal expansion, despite popular belief that the Ebony Warrior is supposed to be Ebonarm or one of his followers.

Plus, I think Todd Howard was planning on taking a very long break from TES anyway, so there's that, too.

I think that would actually be a good idea, but I don't know if BGS plans on implementing a voiced protagonist for their next game as well, though. I know he acknowledged that Fallout 4's dialogue system fell short of what they wanted to do, but I don't know if it means he wants to try new ways of doing a voiced protagonist or if he wants to go back to a silent protagonist for now and come up with better ways of doing it or similar systems over the next few projects. It was actually a very cryptic statement that people should be careful with.

If voice isn't an issue, and they are doing nonhostile alien species, then having different playable species could help the game to stand out from other similar IPs out there, but if they decide to use a human protagonist, I'm okay with that as well.