http://www.gamespot.com/articles/skyrim-director-praises-nintendo-switch-says-elder/1100-6445634/

What the [censored], Todd?! Elder Scrolls is your cash cow! What the Oblivion are you doing putting it on the shelf? Imagine if Nintendo decided they were going to stop working on Mario games for the next few years? What if JK Rowling stopped writing Harry Potter related stuff?!

Oh, you have "other projects" in the works! Sure you do! Because Rogue Warrior, Wet, and IHRA Drag Racing are any indication, that's always worked SO WELL in the past! Yeah, games that aren't in your specialty of open-ended RPGs have never sold very well for Bethesda!

It's already been five years since we've dived into the world of Tamriel! We've waited so long as it is for a sequel!

Only IHRA Drag Racing was developed by Bethesda. They were the publisher for Wet and Rogue Warrior, like they are for Dishonored, DOOM(2016), the upcoming Prey, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, etc.

Anyways, how do you know that those projects they are working on aren't open-world RPGs, just ones that don't fit into the ES or FO settings?

Almost inevitably, the next TES game IS being worked on, but until the engine modifications and other underlying technical hurdles are ironed out, everything else is subject to change. There's no point in working on something if it's likely to become obsolete or unusable if/when the requirements need to be adjusted. Most of the team is probably off doing other projects until their efforts are needed for TES, because it beats paying them for doing nothing. Until then, TES VI will likely remain a "back burner" project for all but a handful of people working full time on those technical issues. Once those are taken care of, the game will move up the priority list FAST, and people will be reassigned to it as quickly as they can wrap up their roles in those other projects, because, as pointed out, TES is a flagship product.

Because Todd Howard and the Bethesda Game Studios employees are human beings who can't keep on working on developing The Elder Scrolls video games for the rest of their lives.

Todd Howard has been developing The Elder Scrolls video games with Bethesda Softworks since 1994 with The Elder Scrolls Chapter One: Arena, which is twenty two years old now.

While Todd Howard loves developing The Elder Scrolls video games, he also wants to move on and develop brand new video games in brand new Intellectual Properties (IP's) to let his and Bethesda Game Studios creative freedom expand and flourish.

The Elder Scrolls video games needs about a close to ten year break anyways.

I'd also like to point out that Bethesda will deny they're working on anything at all until they are almost to release. Look at Skyrim and Fallout 4. "Nope, we're not working on anything." Next year, "Nope, we're not working on anything." Year after, "Nope, we're not working on anything." Two weeks later, "Check out this gameplay trailer." They even kept up this behavior after leaks showed that they were working on Fallout 4 and confirmed several aspects of the game.

This is how I view their practices, too. Godd Howard and Co. are all full of it.

Is it possible that BGS has not done *any* work on TES6? Yes, but I'd be quite surprised if that were the case.

Not to long ago Todd Howard confirmed that they have two brand new AAA video games that they want to develop that are the size of The Elder Scrolls video games and Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.

Todd Howard said we will most likely see those two brand new AAA video games before we ever see The Elder Scrolls VI.

Maybe Bethesda Game Studios has concept work for The Elder Scrolls VI, but that's probably about it we will see Starfield or whatever brand new video game they are developing to be released for sale in 2018.

This isn't even the same as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or Fallout 4 at all.

They want to develop brand new video games and not be developing The Elder Scrolls video games and Fallout video games forever.

Indeed.

Todd Howard's actual wording was that "we'll hear about them before the next Elder Scrolls game is announced." So all we know for sure is that we will hear about two other projects before TES VI is announced.

I am only cautioning people not to jump to the conclusion that Bethesda is going to release two games before TES VI.

You must be new here.

I'm not sure if I'm getting the exact phrasing right but I think I recall some words from Pete Hines that BGS isn't a two-button vending machine where they're going back and forth between TES and Fallout.


If Bethesda is willing to do a whole new IP, I would agree with Pete. I'm all for Bethesda creating something new.

I love TES, but I agree with this, too. I'm sure they are a bit tired of doing the same thing all the time.

Oh, we could only be so lucky.


A company that wants to do other things than just constantly milk the cash cow shouldn't be criticized for that. It's far too common these days to just churn out repeat titles for the sake of profit. Mario is a perfect example of this. Nintendo doesn't even need to make new games anymore, just sell the crafting tools to people and let them make their own.


If Bethesda wants to make a Flight Simulator, let them. They aren't a slave labour force that exists just to do the consumers bidding.

They've also repeatedly said that they want to talk about games first when they're close to release, so it is exceedingly unlikely they would announce one large project and then another before releasing the first one.

and he also said a month and a half before FO4 was announced that "Fallout 4 is not in development"..

Todd Howard = Sheogorath.

Source??

it was an interview he did with a gaming site.. I want to say it was IGN, but it may have been another (it was quite awhile ago at this point)


they also made similar claims with both Skyrim and Oblivion prior to their official announcements.. part of being signed to an NDA, even if they are working on something, they are contractually obligated to say they are not until the official announcements launches

They are probably just working out bugs and stuff at the moment (or maybe they haven't started, how would I know )

Why would anybody take Bethesda at their exact word?


Now, I understand that they are almost undoubtedly trying to create a new engine for this game.. which is a huge endeavour. But it's been 5 years now, and they stopped Fallout 4 support super early. Regardless of what else they are working on, I don't buy that TES VI isn't a huge chunk of their development right now.

BGS Maryland is hiring a level designer who can "Use Creation Engine toolset to design, implement and optimize game locations" even as we speak. So they have plans to update the existing engine and use it for at least one more game.

A new engine will be cool. It will be interesting to see what improvements it brings

Well, I sure hope that designer can do that. Questionable whether or not that is a good move, but I'm not exactly an expert on game programming.

I take ZeniMax Media Inc's., Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, Pete Hines, and Todd Howards word for it because they actually want to develop two brand new AAA video games the size of The Elder Scrolls video games and Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 and that on Todd Howards face every time you look at him he looks very tired and you can see his is burnt out on working on developing The Elder Scrolls video games after twenty two years.

They are human beings and need to move on to expand their creative freedom so it can flourish.

Todd Howard is very rich now and he made ZeniMax Media Inc. and Bethesda Softworks very rich also with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4 both earning like $600+ million dollars (USD) in the first week or two when they released both of those video games for sale.

They also trademarked Starfield in 2013, like after April 2013 when they said they will move the rest of the video game developers working on developing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim onto their next adventure and next project which was Fallout 4 and now probably Starfield or whatever brand new AAA video game they are developing.

I think Starfield is still in active trademarking.

I keep saying it, but I'm calling it I have been calling it since like 2014 there will be no The Elder Scrolls VI released for sale in 2017 or in 2018.

I even called it back as far as 2012 that Fallout 4 will be released for sale in 2015.

Bethesda Game Studios takes about five or so years to develop their video games after they release the one that they finished developing for sale.

Releasing The Elder Scrolls VI for sale in 2017 will be to early, even in 2018 releasing it for sale will be to early. Fallout 4 just released for sale one year and twelve days ago.

Fallout 3 releasing for sale only two years after they released The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was a one off thing.

Video games today are taking more and more years to develop.

Todd Howard seems to like having about 100+ employees to 200+ employees he feels that that is his sweet spot of the number of people he likes to work with.

Hiring more people isn't always a good solution to get video games developed faster. Miscommunications can happen and have happened when you have 1,000+ people hired.