I don't keep up on the forums but the first couple of pages didn't have a topic on this so here is one. Now last year Arkane Studios, the masterminds behind Dark Messiah: Might and Magic, were acquired by Zenimax and in the announcement (posted on Arkane's main site) states "Arkane is currently working on an unannounced project with Bethesda Softworks."

Does this mean Arkane could be working with them on the combat? Since Dark Messiah had such amazing combat it would only benefit the game as a whole. What does the community think?

Arkane is working on their own unannounced game, that is being only published by Bethesda Softworks.

Note that, Bethesda Game Studios are the folks who created Fallout 3 and the TES series, Bethesda Softworks is the publishing branch of the company.

What I do believe is the BGS will take advantage of this new relation with Arkane to share ideas and thoughts on how to improve the combat system, and then work on it by themselves using Dark Messiah and Arkane tips as a source of inspiration.

I'm hoping bgs takes some pointers

Zenimax, parent company of Bethesda, has acquired Arkane Studios. So yeah, they are probably helping with Skyrim.

1 No, their game is unannounced, obviously, Skyrim is announced.
2. This is Bethesda Game Studios game, no sharing!

I bet they will use Dark Messiah as inspiration, or even discuss it with Arkane Studios. I doubt they are actually on the team especially if they are all ready working on a game.

Not likely, BGS is their own studio, without Arkane.

That information was of August 12, 2010. At that time Skyrim hadn't been announced.

if thats true,. I can't wait to see their new game!

In the behind the scenes gi video it showed the screening room where the team play other games to take a look at other features/ideas in games and see if it would fit in their games. Maybe the relationship with arkane is sort of an extension of this?

That does not make the argument valid.
In the same press announcement of the acquisition, it states that Bethesda Softworks and Arkane Game Studios are doing a publishing deal. Also, there has been multiple confirmations, if I recall correctly, that they are not working on a game with Bethesda Game Studios, in this case, Skyrim.

I remember a week or two ago there was a dude that was convinced Arkane was designing the whole game.

I'd rather Arkane work on the cooking element of Skyrim. The cooking part of Arx Fatalis was awesome!!!

Speaking of Arkane, I hope they are finally getting to make Arx Fatalis 2. I remember Julien from their dev team telling me of his ideas like 7 or 8 years ago on the RPGdot boards.

I hope they take tips for the spell casting. Arkane did Arx Fatalis, and that game has the best casting mechanics of any I've played.
(I'm not asking for the same system ~but honestly that wouldn't bother me in the least if they did use it.)
Its a real thrill to get to the point where you can be walking down a dark hall and [almost] unconsciously flick your wrist to light all the torches
(for having memorized the spell gestures).

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Arkane is working on Elder Scrolls V.

Zenimax purchased Arkane Studios, as well as other game developers like id, but that doesn't mean id is working on ESV.

I love it how Sony share their technology between studios and they all help each other. Bethesda should follow suit.

NO! and hopefully not!