Elder Scrolls Fans Grumble at MMO Announcment…Really?

Yesterday, ZeniMax announced that the many rumors of an Elder Scrolls MMO were true, and officially announced The Elder Scrolls Online, only to be met with fan backlash. The main reason being, that fans believe that Bethesda will be less likely to release another single-player Elder Scroll game, since they do not want to compete with themselves.

While Bethesda is owned by ZeniMax, they are two separate development studios; with ZeniMax developing the Elder Scrolls MMO, and Bethesda doing what it normally does. As a MMORPG gamer first, and Elder Scroll fan second, I don’t see a conflict of interest.  A single-player RPG and a MMORPG are not in the same market. It’s like World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3, one’s a RTS game, and the other a MMORPG. Both can exist at the same time without affecting the other.

One comment on the Bethesda blog stated,

Please say this won’t indefinitely post-pone the release of the next real TES title, the way World of Warcraft has indefinitely put Warcraft 4 on hold.

This user is failing to see that  Warcraft 4 was not put on hold for WoW, but for Starcraft 2. Both are RTS games that do compete in the same market. A single-player RPG is no more of a threat to a MMORPG than any other single-player game.

The only issue I could see is that Bethesda wouldn’t want to saturate and cheapen the Elder Scrolls name by releasing too many games around the same time. However, considering that the Elder Scrolls RPGs normally have a 4-5 year development cycle, we won’t see Elder Scrolls VI for at least another 3-4 years anyway. Elder Scrolls Online has a release date of 2013, which provides a big enough buffer that it probably won’t have any affect on the next Elder Scrolls RPG release date anyway.

Regardless, I can’t wait to learn more about Elder Scrolls Online.

6 Comments

  1. Expansions. If you must keep the MMO players happy, you need content. If you withhold their content, you make them unhappy, and you will have an endless cycle.

  2. If ever a game was meant to be made into an MMO this is it. (along with a Fallout MMO).

    They will need expansions, but if the MMO is successful they just expand, employ more people with the vast amounts of cash they will rake in – plough a share it into development of the new single player version.

    Its not a choice of one or the other – make lots of money from the former and the latter will hopefully benefit too.

    Just so long as they dont drop the ball! Pfft why am I worrying – how could they possibly balls up an MMO with this franchise? ………

  3. Well… the diffrence is, that it´s made by Zenix or what ever they´re called Studios and not by Bethesda.

    And for a game or secret, the game just does not look great at all, release next year! yeah :)

    Just have a look at the pictures, espec. the characters… can´t we have a Skyrim type of world, full of dungeons, open map PvP and a GW2 type of combat system? No teleportation crap, notin casual friendly, multiple factions, diffrent races (orcs, gobos etc..)…

    We want to explore things, lets US play the GAME, dont tell US how to play it! Skyrim is a perfect example, no need to quest at all, explore, complete dungeons and do some quests, when you want to.

    http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/05/elder-scrolls-online-images-and-details.html

  4. I can see the argument, as we have a demonstrable example in the form of Bioware and KOTOR. Now that we have SWTOR, does anyone still anticipate a KOTOR 3? I think we already got it, and its saturated with MMO stickiness. Unfortunately I’m pretty sure that the same thing will happen to Elder Scrolls, not least of which is because MMOs are very time consuming, labor intensive and costly; plus, maintenance and updates/expansions. So I’d bet hard money that Elder Scrolls MMO kills the single player part of the franchise for the long run. This won’t affect me much….I like the series but I’m not married to it; but it will be painful when they inevitably do the same thing to my mutant baby, the Fallout series.

  5. Well… the diffrence is, that it´s made by Zenix or what ever they´re called Studios and not by Bethesda. And for a game or secret, the game just does not look great at all, release next year! yeah :)Just have a look at the pictures, espec. the characters… can´t we have a Skyrim type of world, full of dungeons, open map PvP and a GW2 type of combat system? No teleportation crap, notin casual friendly, multiple factions, diffrent races (orcs, gobos etc..)…We want to explore things, lets US play the GAME, dont tell US how to play it! Skyrim is a perfect example, no need to quest at all, explore, complete dungeons and do some quests, when you want to.http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/05/elder-scrolls-online-images-and-details.html

    Hmmm. I just posted a comment but then I read yours, and it may have changed my mind slightly. If Bethesda contracted out, that could be a different story entirely.

  6. Camazots:

    The thing that you, and every other person saying that same thing, are missing is that a DIFFERENT company is making the MMO to who makes the single player RPGs.

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