So I was thinking about this and I've come to a reasonable conclusion. Bethesda is building a new engine for TES5. Think about it: there was a new engine for morrowind, there was a new engine for oblivion. Fallout games are coming out right and left because they're based on a modified oblivion engine. I think that's why Bethesda hasn't announced TES5, because it's not even close to release and they don't want people getting excited now and then having enthusiasm die away closer to release. Thoughts?

On the one hand, I'd hope that you're right, in that as Oblivion showed, the engine is in sore need of modernization. And now as games like Assassins Creed can do so much of what made Daggerfall interesting for rogue-type characters, I would hope that Bethesda is taking mind of this kind of thing.

On the other hand however, Bethesda has just always taken a long time to release TES titles. With all of the lore and expansiveness of the TES world and the roleplaying that makes it so wonderful, it makes a certain sense since Bethesda isn't just writing a game, they're writing War and Peace, and from many redundant perspectives at that. It's a lot of work to create so much. It takes time.

Frankly, if Bethesda were to just spit out a TES in a couple of years, I'd be worried.

That said however, I am sorely disappointed in the direction with which Bethesda has been taking the TES games lately. From where I stand, things have been going very much downhill ever since Daggerfall, from my specifically roleplaying-oriented point of view. (Which is the only reason I ever loved TES in the first place, as of better action and adventure games there are many, but not for roleplaying.) So I fear that whilst I may understand what theoretically could be taking Bethesda so much time in producing TES V, I fear I have a difficult time believing that such is indeed the case.

Sadly, my best hope at this point is that Bethesda is taking so long simply because they are realizing that Oblivion went much too far in simplification for any TES game, and they are even now still trying to decide how to correct for this and make TES V as wonderfully robust as Daggerfall ever was.

Morrowind was the first game Bethesda built on the Gamebryo engine. But Oblivion and Fallout 3 were also built on Gamebryo, and nobody is expecting TES 5 to be different in that respect.

The fact that a game has not been announced really means very little; it's a business decision when to time an announcement for maximum effect, and that time is not the present. You're right in that they do not want to announce prematurely, but there is no foundation for a belief that development has been delayed.

Followups to the official thread, here: http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1078674