I just had a thought that seems insane, but after reading what some people posted about ESO and how it's success might have signaled the end of Elder Scrolls, I simply wondered if Bethesda might actually move away from ES period. It seems like a crazy move given that they had all this success with Skyrim, however, I think there are several good reasons for it.

Why it might happen

1. Skyrim felt like a trump card where ES is concerned. How can you go bigger than the "literal end of the world"? You really can't. Any plot that they are going to pursue in the Elder Scrolls universe at this point is going to be "meh" in comparison. This is really one of the larger reasons that I could see them shelving Elder Scrolls as a single player franchise and just letting ESO run its course.

2. Franchise fatigue. Elder Scrolls celebrated its 20 year anniversary not so long ago right? After so long with the same game, it might be a good idea to try something new, if only for the sake of your developers who might have a lot of interesting ideas that don't really fit cannonically with the current IP. Also, I'm of the mind that IP's can overstay their welcome. After a certain point in time, there is something to be gained by just allowing a game out to pasture where it can die gracefully. We don't want another FF on our hands do we?

3. Generating a new IP that would be a spiritual successor to Elder Scrolls would be insanely fun, as much as it would be scary. It would give Beth a chance to set up a game world and lore in a forward thinking manner. I feel as though much of the events in Elder Scrolls are being made up as we go along (roughly not entirely) but if they had the opportunity they could plant the seeds for many interesting events in a fresh game lore.

Why it might not

1. Hard to walk away from a successful franchise name, especially since Skyrim did do so well.

2. Even though I mentioned franchise fatigue, Bethesda has had the good sense not to milk Elder Scrolls with releases every other year or some crap like that. So even if the franchise has been around a while, it hasn't outstayed its welcome in any sense.

3. Not every ES game has been about world ending tragedies. The stakes have always been high, but they've been region-specific since we got Morrowind (which is where I started playing so Daggerfall and its continent spanning hijinks are unknown to me). Another game centered on a smaller plot would be interesting.

(Actually now that I think about it, every ES game HAS been about some world ending plot. I'm assuming if Dagoth Ur would have succeeded, he would have gone on to end the world. If the Oblivion Crisis hadn't been contained, that would've been world ending more or less as well right? Skyrim was absolutely a world ending crisis, so maybe there is no other way to look at this one. Huh.)

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What do you guys think? Is Elder Scrolls still going to be going strong for another 10-15 years or are they winding it down? I'd personally be happy with either, but if I'm being entirely honest, I'd love to see what they'd do with a new IP. So long as it was Elder Scrolls spiritual successor and not an abandoning of those games, I'll be happy.

Gonna pick on this a second... Every TES has indeed been a world-ending plot. Both Arena and Daggerfall were made so retroactively (though considering the colossal shift in the world from Daggerfall to Redguard, this is forgivable) but the point remains. Had Tharn continued to rule, Tamriel would have fallen to Ruins and no one would have been around to oppose Dagon. Had the Numidium not been destroyed it would have gone around NO-ing everything into non-existence. Dagoth Ur himself states his intent to conquer Tamriel and join everyone in the collective that is the Corpus. Dragon would have burned Tamriel and destroyed every last fragment of the previous world's. Alduin... Well, he's obvious.

There has ALWAYS been a threat to the world, and there should always be one. I'd prefer a more subtle plot, like Morrowinds of Daggerfalls, but the overarching threat is always an apocalyptic one.


On to the matter at hand, however... I don't think they are suffering from fatigue, at least not in the normal sense... I think they are suffering from a lack of inspiration. This is, IMO, from their closed door methods and lack of community interaction. Todd and many of his team are clearly passionate about the franchise, and want to do all by it, but looking at the same problem with the same eyes isn't the best way to innovate or improve. The lack of fresh perspective, which they have a community of thousands of die-hard fans for, can take a toll on overall design.

There is also a risk that comes from giving designers too much room. We say this with Diakatana, Too Human, Duke Nukem Forever and Watchdogs...giving developers too much control can lead to some bizzare decisions, wasted time and sloppy implementation.

Do I think they are done with TES? Absolutely not. Do I think they have some hurdles that are in their way for the future? Yes. Whether or not knowing about those hurdles is slowijg them down or not is another discussion.

what better excuse as the end of the world to create a unwilling hero that has to make a hard choice between saving his girlfriend / wife / dog / whatever or the world and in the end saves both , add in some huge deamons/dragons /anyother big scary monster some big bangs and explosions and voila

bethesda certainly not going to abandon their best selling franchise , they working on that other franchise right now . finding new inspiration for their next TES game