Bethesda worked on Oblivion from mid-2002 when Morrowind was released until April 2006 when Oblivion was released. That was almost 4 years, and there were still suspicions that Oblivion, which was delayed from its initial late-2005 release window, was a touch rushed, and that it could have used another six months of poilish.

Bethesda started working on Skyrim (can't believe that we can finally say that without it being conjecture!) in late 2008 after Fallout 3 was released, and if they release it on 11/11/11 then they will have worked on if for almost exactly three years from pre-production to release. Given Bethesda's track record with these sorts of games, three years, whilst a long time in general for game development, seems to me to be rather optimistic. If it took them 4 years to make a rather under-polished Oblivion, how in the heck are they going to make the shinier and more epic Skyrim in a mere three? Don't get me wrong, that they want us to be able to play the game in time for next Christmas is fantastic, although I wouldn't be shocked and stunned if they end up having to delay the game until April 2012 or something, much as they did with Oblivion. Thoughts?

3 years is plenty of time if you manage the time well.

Well, There can be SOME overlap between the two games. I would guess that they started planning and early production right after oblivion.

I hope they managed to release it in 2011, as it would be sad having to wait longer. But i would not be suprised if it do get delayed a half a year or so.

I think there will be delays but i just dont care now that its officially been announced!!

from how i've understood it, they had plans/ideas/plot/setting etc, already done 2007 to some part. Then after they were finished with FO3 they began seriously thinking about it, so they have already "worked" on it to a level since 2007. If it is released late 2011, it makes 4 years.

I'd rather have delays than a rushed game. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, isn't the team that's been working on Skyrim considerably bigger than the team that worked on Oblivion? I seem to remember reading about that somewhere.

Exactly!! they have got to be bigger now, they must've updated the engine by now especially for SKYRIM just cant wait!!
Id like to say media blackout but i dont think its gonna happen!!

Of course I really have no idea, but I would imagine that with work on Fallout 3 taking the lion's share of their resources throughout 2007 and 2008, any pre-production in 2007 on TES V would likely have been of a fairly cursory nature, with the real work starting late 2008 when Fallout was released. I dunno- I don't have my facts straight because I do not work for Bethesda, but a late 2011 release date just seems a bit strange to me, knowing that Bethesda like each of their games to be "be all and end all" epics. Even their 90-odd staff working non-stop for three years doesn't seem like enough time to me.

BUT WHAT DO I KNOW? I'm just a pleb who enjoys playing BGS's games, and I will gobble up TES V no matter how long it takes them to make it!

Bethesda is good at managing their time, they have had sizeable growth in the last years... I'd say they can do it. Once they nail that date down, they are always sure to do their best. But this time around, don't forget about patching afterwards, mkay? ^_^

The team is 90 people or so i heard. I think the team that made Oblivion was probably around 60. As someone else said, if time management is good it will make the release date.

From how I understand it, they didn't do any pre-production per ce, they just had very much already under control and had an idea of how Skyrim would be and what would be included and not. I could have understood it all wrong, wouldn't be the first time

I would think that they began production of Skyrim in 2006, after releasing Oblivion, like they did before. Can't see why Fallout has anything to do with it, seeing as it's most likely not the same team. And 4-5 years is more than enough time to make an epic-scaled game.

How do you know that a core team did not start development on Skyrim right after development on Oblivion ended?

I don't think they would make such a big deal of saying "here's our next project, oh, and HERE'S the day it's in stores" if they were dead certain about it.

Bethesda Game Studios, who made Oblivion and Fallout 3, concentrate on one game at a time. The team who made Oblviion are the team who made Fallout 3. Whilst individuals within their team might go off and do other things in preparation for their next game, BGS do not have two or more teams working on different games. Todd has even said that the real work on TES V (although he didn't call it TES V at tne time) began late 2008 after the release of Fallout 3. I would be incredibly surprised if any meaningful work on TES V, other than perhaps outlining concepts and ideas, took place in 2006 (or 2007, for that matter), because they were wholly immersed in the profuction of Fallout 3.

Don't forget the development team is now huge! MANY HANDS MAKES LIGHT WORK! I would be surprised if it's not delayed but thats ok now we know officially coming.

I'll admit that I hadn't considered the size of the development team when I made the OP- if there are now 90 people working at BGS, where they had a mere 60 whilst developing Oblivion, then I can see how three years would be enough time.

Personally I don't think there will be any delays unless something goes wrong that they need to remedy.

Why would they go out of there way to make such a precise announcement date? Todds also said that the game is very near to finish. Didn't they also also just started voice acting which I think is always the final thing to get done.

I'm sure they started thinking about the game long before they actually started production. As technology gets better its going to take less and less time to make games.

And if skyrim was in pre production whilst fallout 3 was being focused on they couldve fleshed out the entire storyline, game world and all plots, factions, monsters, etc etc and now all they have to do is build it.

For all we know they couldve planned the entire game out and now all they have to do Is put it together

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-year are more important than callender years. If you multiply the number of people working on a project you can shorten the amount of time each one individually works on the project and still have worked the same amount of time on the project as a whole.

Oblivion was created in 4 years with 60 people. 4x60=240. 240 Man-years went into it.
Skyrim, if as you say, was worked on for 3 years with 90 people. 3x90=270. 270 Man-years went in to the making of Skyrim.

Morrowind is difficult to calculate since it's development was halted several times because of other games (Battlespire, Redguard) or switching engines. But 30 people worked on Morrowind and ignoring that they didn't work fulltime on the project, Morrowind took 6 years. Thus 6x30=180 man-years for Morrowind.

And by the way, some work (planning, outline of story, quest ideas, first concept art and engine overhaul) on Skyrim probably began in 2006 (when the Skyrim trademark was first registered) although probably by only by a skeleton crew of a dozen people. By time more and more people were added to the project (those finished with Fallout 3 and the DLC).

Remember man-hours or man-years for your economics class. With two people instead of one you can paint the same house in half the time.

They were working on TES V as soon as they finished making Oblivion.
There's quote saying that Todd's team has their hands full with Fallout AND the next TES.

Yes, this is something that I had not considered, and various posters have now pointed this fact out to me. I do now see that with more people working on a project, they can complete it without compromising on quality or leaving things out. My fears have been allayed!

I got really sick of people making speculation based on precedent. The fact that it took them x many years to make DF after Arena and MW after DF has nothing to do with the amount of time it will take them to crank out the next game. They hired on new staff, built entirely new departments (mocap I think). Comparing the time span between games is like comparing construction schedules of the 1920's to today - Where they used to have a dozen guys working on a game, they now have entire floors of animators, musicians, writers, programmers and on and on. I don't know how many people have worked on Skyrim, but it is, apparently adequate to produce the game in this time frame. Probably skimped on the beta testing, but that's what patches are for in today's gaming world.

I love that we've gone from speculation along the lines of "ffs, it's been forever - just announce it! It must be done by now!" to a topic like this I reckon they must be confident to announce it like that, so I'm going to be confident too. It will be great.