Well the way I see it, there would only be two possible endings if there were more than one. Dovahkiin defeats Alduin and saves the entire world, or Alduin destroys the entire world, ending the Elder Scrolls series as we know it.

This is why I think there will be only one ending, Dovahkiin defeating Alduin.

With a little more imagination, the ending can be very different even if you win. For instance you may lose a town or two during the finale depending on your decicions, you may lose Esbern or not, you may eliminate a faction..

Semi close ended. We will save the world from Alduin, but will Skyrim stay with Empire or not i think we could decide it.

I misunderstood the question and voted wrongly, my bad. I thought you meant will the ending of the game be open, which it will - as in, we'll be able to play past the end of the main quest. The main quest will undoubtedly be closed, though.

The way we all get to the ending will differ slightly for each play-through. The actual ending itself though will be exactly the same for everyone. It's like many already mentioned, it would be difficult to stay true to lore if it had a Dragon Age or Mass Effect feel to it. Those games have some lore but game-wise, they are more based on choice and consequence a lot more than TES is. Although, I think with Skyrim BGS is trying to have more consequences/rewards based on your choices while still staying true to lore.

That's not what open-ended means.

Is this like the glass of water juice joke or what?

radient story is a dynamic/ meta based system like in 40k rts each faction story has diffrent ending but non will end the game in skyrim (continues play) and depending on faction you choose you will only see endings assosiated to your aliences

i believe there are atleast 9 factions who seek the throne of skyrim ,based upon the pre-order map symbols 2 possible confirmed names of the 9 factions stormcloak and shield brothers

Why not an open ending? After all, this would probably give raise to a Dragon break which would be mentioned in TES VI...

Personnally, I would like to protect Dragons. Especially the kind of Dragons which is keen to be apostates with respect to Alduin and to get involved in Skyrim's politics...

I'd like to see it a little open ended depending on how you handled the game up until that point. As in Good/Evil/Neutral. But farther than that? No, just kill Alduin.

Multiple endings? But that would require a... Dragon Break. :hehe:

I don't know if multiple endings would necessarily break the lore of the game, provided that these endings all followed the same basic path, but simultaneously had variations that might matter for the player and his character, but not for the history of the world. So the player might have some influence in what happens to certain people and certain locations, but if the lore says Armageddon will be averted it's always averted in the end. Still, depending on how you dealt with a variety of situations might leave some largely irrelevant marks on the world. In essence, you never break the prophesy but you'll have the ability to effect those things that were never prophesized.