I recently watched a video on Gametrailers where it was stated that Skyrim is the second best selling game of 2011, behind Modern Warfare 3.

Now, what exactly does this mean for the future of Skyrim, and the future of Bethesda? Skyrim's launch has been met with tremendous success in spite of the numerous bugs and glitches that plague the game in this early stage. Given this success, is it really acceptable for Bethesda to release games with bugs such as the PS3 file size issue? Almost every Bethesda game has shipped with a plethora of bugs, some game breaking, and bugs and glitches have become synonymous with Bethesda releases.

While I personally think that The Elder Scrolls ceased to be a niche series after Daggerfall, it is beyond argument that the series has been accepted by mainstream gamers. TES is no longer a game played only by RPG fanatics: it seems almost every gamer is now getting in on the Elder Scrolls action. Although some of this increase in popularity can be attributed to increased advertisemant, word of mouth has likely been a large factor in increased sales. When TES can go up against industry juggernauts like Call of Duty and come out unscathed, you know Bethesda has finally struck gold.

How does everyone else feel about this news? I'm personally hoping that Bethesda can put this success to good use and patch up some of the issues with the game. Although Skyrim was very successful, Skyrim's long list of bugs and glitches and undoubtedly left a sour taste on more than a few gamer's palates, but I think Bethesda could repair their reputation with better tech support.

Well I think that they had such high sales figures based on past performance, not on this launch. The successful sales figures were based upon their reputation, people expected a great game on launch date being that it is TES. But in light of their less than stellar launch and lack of information on fixes with Skyrim, their next game will suffer the consequences. Whatever they do launch next needs to be perfect, even if it means delays.

IIRC they announced the release date of Skyrim one year in advance. Of course they had to hold to that date. I hope they learned from it now that it is better to delay the product and polish it more.

That will teach them not to announce dates arbitrarily. You don't see Blizzard announcing dates for Diablo (I don't like Diablo so this isn't a plug for them), they will release it when they feel it is finished. That seems a responsible approach.

Not sure I agree with that. The easiest way to find bugs is by mass users playing the game. It may make us sound like testers but it is true.

The game has still been very enjoyable with the bugs. If I was given the choice to play on 11th November or wait two months for less bugs I would pick the earlier release. I agree however that they should not announce a date that far in advance.

I'm predicting a lot of hate as a result of Skyrim's huge mainstream success. It's seen as "cool" to hate things that are popular.

People who don't even have the capacity to enjoy this kind of game will whine about it and call it overrated, just as people who don't even have the capacity to enjoy FPS games whine constantly about COD. And a lot of RPG fans will hate TES even more now than they did after Oblivion for popularizing and ruining their niche hobby.

I think your arguement to be flawed. People who are critical of Skyrim do so not out of hate for TES but out of devotion. If I hate something, I don't bother wasting any time playing it let alone chatting about it on a forum. I am critical of TES because they can, and should have done better. Furthermore you characterize RPGers as being xenophobic or elitists who don't want to share their hobby, which is ridiculous. The more that are interested in RPGs the more players there are to adventure with (mostly in online games like everquest, etc.)

any game the size of Skyrim, and in general most beth games are of the same sort of size, will have bugs, and sure delaying the release date could make it easier to identify some of the bugs, but untill the game is played by Millions world wide there is no way of knowing about certain bugs, the problem with delaying a game even further, obviously means that they spend more money o the product that may be outside of their budget, especialy seeing as they hired alot of new talent this time round (im talking VO actors etc). but i get what your saying that there are a few bugs that could possibly be game breakers for certain people, but me as a Huge TES fan had to start again because of a bug where i couldnt continue the main storyline, sure i was pissed for the first 10 mins but after that it diddnt realy bother me that much, this game has so much to offer, if i have to deal with a few minor bugs for a while then so be it!!

I've been here since Daggerfall and ill be here for Akavir though i find myself fighting complainers more and more.

Yes. they've done quite well

http://www.news.com.au/technology/gaming/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3-grosses-775m-in-first-five-days/story-e6frfrt9-1226198933354

Lets hope they spend all that money wisely....

I wouldn't doubt it being #2 kinda figured it would. TES IV got GotY and back then NOBODY knew about the series, Morrowind.. or anything about it. I know I didn't. It wasn't until a friend introduced it to me did I know of it's existence.

Loved Bethesda to DEATH ever since. Every achievement, quest, whatever DONE in both Oblivion and Fallout 3. EVERYTHING! Lol..

Many hours of my life drained, but still loving it. There formula is perfect to say the last. Keep making more games Bethesda! <3 :tes: :fallout:

You might not, but others do. I hear whining about COD all time from people who don't even play it.


Have you been to the RPG codex? It's full of a load of bitter elitists; most of whom loathe Bethesda and Bioware. They enjoy criticising RPGs more than they enjoy playing them.

You may be right, I can only speak from my own experiences and beliefs. Human nature being what it is I don't doubt that there are haters who hate for hates sake.

Just about every game these days is launched with bugs in them , gamedesign and development becoming so complex it is almost unavoidable
My experience the bugs and glitches were minor , ask anyone who plays eve online about previous summer expansion bugs and glitches and they will tell you skyrim bugs are minor in comparison

Second bestselling game of 2011 is good news for the elderscrolls fan , it gives bethesda the incentives to keep developing this game world

I'm happy for Beth despite being disappointed in some of the decisions they have made, and the wall of silence they seem to have erected to the pc players. I only hope that TES doesn't morph into something else that isn't rpg.

A game sell well on the launch day has more to do with the successful marketing, advertising, and brand reputation. It really has nothing to do with the condition

I do not think that you can call "can't play the game at all despite my hardware/drivers/everything being in order without a third party programme (the 4gb fix)" a minor bug in any shape or form. Compounded by the fact that we were ninja patched once without warning. It doesn't look good.

another bugs thread. they will fix them give them time. it doesnt happen over night.

Morrowind sold well over a million copies, I wouldn't say the series was unheard of.

I fully agree to that. Why not be critical? There is no hate by default in constructive criticism.

I feel proud and glad. It hopefully means Bethesda can hire some real talented programmers to fix the crappy mess that is their "new" engine in terms of performance, heavily outdated graphics, CTDs, and all the bugs their game got.

I never envisioned agreeing with and entire post from you, Sheo, but you're spot on here. This kind of attitude prevails in modern western society, especially in the environment of anonymity provided by the internet. It's not just games either. It happens with film, tv, music and even literature. An example:

Fred discovers a cool unsigned band on a music sharing site, lets call them Spunkbubble. Fred likes them, searches for more of their music, finds their official page/site and becomes a bit of a fan. Fred is happy, and tells all his friends about his amazing discovery, little realising that other people have also discovered Spunkbubble and are busy sharing their amazing discovery with their friends. So after a while Spunkbubble are generating quite a bit of internet traffic, and a small record company takes an interest. Spunkbubble record an album with said company
and it becomes an underground hit. A bigger record company sign Spunkbubble and promote their material to a wider audience. Sooner or later Spunkbubble are a popular band, videos on tv, second album rocketing up the charts. Fred is unhappy because he is no longer part of the exclusive club that Spunkbubble fandom used to be. To Fred, their music has become 'too mainstream', Spunkbubble have 'sold out' and all the fans apart from Fred are 'plastic fans'. This is simply because Fred cannot get it in to his tiny brain that Spunkbubble don't, and never did, create music specifically for Fred. Spunkbubble have lost a fan, but gained many, many more. They don't care. They've never even heard of Fred.

Disclaimer: I am not in a band called Spunkbubble.

The sad truth is, only a small percentage of the bugs in Skyrim will ever be fixed. Even after Bethesda had finished patching Morrowind and Oblivion, there was still a long lost of bugs left unfixed. These bugs were eventually addressed by the unofficial patches, but console gamers were left with a still buggy product.

It was also a GOTY as well, which kinda pushed Oblivion into the seat as well.

That being said I kind of agree and disagree with prince adam avatar there....I think his general premise is right, but it'll be the fairweather fans who ultimately break way from the series. Short of Bethesda becoming the next Blizzard or something.

Did you know Bethesda floated on bankruptcy just before Morrowind came out? How quickly things change.