Unless the next jump in console power is up to the equivalent of a modern gaming PC. In which case, I imagine it would entail the same price as a gaming PC as well.

Playing Skyrim on console is a mistake; but I would hate to have to wait 3 years for the next round of lolsoles.

However, it doesn't really matter, with mods Skyrim will be "next-gen". Look at the shader mod for Fallout:NV for example.

most would forget about the series, not past games but the possibility of a future game.

True. I mean, look at an overhauled Morrowind on the PC now compared to the vanilla game on the xbox.

I voted nah. I'm about middle of the road. Sure the developement on a beefier console would have been benificial to the PC... but really they are very comfortable with the systems, they know their capabilities. By the time new consoles are out, at least now they have a few years to get to know them for the next possible release. And more people will have them 2-3 years after release, then on the initial release. A lot of people already own 360's and PS3's, so I think they definitely made the right decision.

Wow, that's pretty ignorant. Allow me to educate you.
The next gen consoles are predicted to be released in 2014. This is due to Kinect and Move extended the life of the consoles.
That's 8 years between games. I rather them put out skyrim, and then the next game come out around 2016 on the new consoles. This way they have a great game on a new console without them having to guess it's specs like with oblivion, also we get a game in between.

Honestly I think this way is the best way to go. All of you seem to think this generation is nearly over, but thanks to Kinect and Move, we're about have way through it.

The Kinect (and perhaps less so) the Move are nothing more than gimmicks. Motion controls don't make the games looks or perform any better.

Half-way through this generations life-span? Let's see, the 360 came out in November of 2005. So it's been ~5 1/2 years since it's release. So if it's only "half-way through" we should be getting the next systems around 2016. Yeah...

EDIT: Honestly, even 2014 is really late. I can't even predict what PC Hardware will be like then...

They'll make another TES in the next generation anyway...

That's another ~6-10 years from now though, and it's no excuse to develop for one console specifically, and then just port it over to the other two, ignoring their superior hardware.

Skyrim needs to be future proof. Developing to push each systems hardware helps achieve this. If it means that PC and PS3 users get better visuals, then that's just how it is, and 360 users will have to deal. It's not like they're missing out on anything from the game-play.

I don't think the next console generation will be a huge step up in terms of graphics other than to say maybe DX11 like support. I could be wrong though, and I'm perfectly happy with Bethesda coming out on current gen as hopefully it'll be far less buggy.

Another thought popped in. Maybe I dreamed it but isn't the next round of consoles supposed to be going for 3D? Everyone isn't going to feel the same way about that but I can't tell you how much 3D doesn't matter to me - until maybe it's perfected but I don't really get much out of something flying at my face after the first 3 minutes.

Just a thought. :tes:

I have to agree, 3D is very overrated.

The PS3 already has 3D support, so yeah, I could see next-generation consoles going for 3D, but not forced 3D.

They fully understand the capabilities of the consoles now, and know the limits of them.
If they released it for the next get, they would be guessing what kind of software-hardware they would use, so the possibilities of if being ... not great ... are huge

Agree it would be Oblivion all over again. That's not a bad thing but it's not what the fans would expect from BGS this time around.

Future-proof?
No game is future-proof. And Bethesda doesn't intend you to keep playing the same game for a decade, they would like you to keep buying their products. I have accepted long ago that as a PC gamer that I am a smaller part of the market. The important thing is to get the best game I can reasonably buy today, rather than waiting for a hypothetically better game tomorrow... when "tomorrow" never comes.

TES will be on next gen consoles, whenever that would be. But that doesn't mean we should be stuck with Oblivion until then. There is no reason to wait; Bethesda wants to make games, and we want to buy games. Every TES game is an improvement from the last, so there is no harm that the next gen TES game has a VI in the back of it rather than a V.

they would have had to wait for the next console to come out before they could have started anyway...this way, they didnt waste 5 years sitting around waiting for the next console....The way i see it, they will finish skyrim before the next console, and when the next console does arrive, they can start another elder scrolls!!!

I didn't mean COMPLETELY future proof. I meant as in say, 4 or so years after Skyrim releases, it shouldn't look as bad as Oblivion does now, 4-5 years after it released. Sure, Beth has better experience with current-gen hardware, so it won't look as bad later, but there's other steps they could, and should take as well. Such as taking full advantage of the PS3's cell-CPU and releasing a High-res texture pack (at least 2048x2048) and DX11 patch for the PC.

And I'm not apposed to releasing it now. I'm apposed to releasing a game that gets made to cater to the 360, then ported to the PS3 and PC without regarding their superior hardware and issues that arise with the difference in API's.

bethesda game studios cares about their fans more than any developers that i have seen. the audience wanted another TES and they are making a brilliant one. waiting five years killed me. waiting six more would be just awful.

The TES series is what we call a cash cow. it is an incredible game that brings them boat loads of cash so why would they not want to make one? Also they are going to make another one when the new consoles come out anyways so i doesn't matter. it will be even more epic than skyrim

As I say, it's just business. They don't want to lock Xbox360 out of TES. That's what I would do if I were them. I don't own a console, so of course I rather they release the game for PC only. But that's just a fantasy. Most gamers, from the dawn of electronic gaming, play consoles. There are people who have never played games on a PC ever. It's just the reality of it.

On that I agree.

I am very happy that they did not wait. One last hurrah for the old xbox 360, and hopefully they will have maximized the machines potential, which I don't believe many of the games on it have done. Some of the better games on the original xbox had graphics that nearly matched what 360 offers. It is often, and this has always been the case going back to Nintendo, not until near the end of a console's life that designers and developers figure out how to get the best out of it.

Anyway, it isn't like this is set to be the last game in the series. My hope is that the next gen consoles, when they do come, are so advanced that we won't have to argue and fight amongst ourselves about whether it should be Elder Scrolls VI Summurset Isles, or Elder Scrolls VI: Valenwood, or Elder Scrolls VI: Elwyrr etc. Because the next gen will, at long last, allow for the making of Elder Scrolls VI: Tamriel . And it will have spellmaking, and local co-op options, and side quests that allow access to 15 different Realms of Oblivion, and about twenty different types of ruin. :tops:

PS3 already does 3D games and 3D Blu Ray movies.

@Thumbtack Jake You're last post sums it up nicely.

See how much 3D isn't something I care about....I have a PS3 and didn't even know that. Thanks.

That'll not happen for a long time and for some generations at the very least.

Currently it's taking them some 3+ years with a 100+ (wo)man team just to make one province.

Besides, they already did it with Arena

Then we had provinces mainly populated with (wo)man (Daggerfall), elves (Morrowind), (wo)man (Cyrodiil), (wo)man (Skyrim).

The next installment needs to consist of reptiles or cats (or summerset isles I guess, but [censored] those arrogant high elves) =P