‘Skyrim,’ the fifth installment of ‘The Elder Scrolls,’ was released in 2011 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Since then, Bethesda Game Studios has only released five more games, with ‘Starfield‘ being the most prominent among them, along with ‘Fallout 4.’ However, fans of the medieval saga have had to settle for remasters, small additional content, and mobile games like ‘The Elder Scrolls: Blades.’ Well, with a glimmer of hope on the horizon.
It’s coming, it’s coming
E3 2018. Bethesda releases a teaser for ‘The Elder Scrolls 6,’ and everyone goes crazy: little did they imagine that, five years later, we still wouldn’t have more information about this sixth installment that fans have already given up on. Some believe the silver lining is that they’ll have time in their retirement to explore it fully.
The reality is different, of course, as explained by Bruce Nesmith, one of the designers of ‘Skyrim‘ who, by the way, no longer works at Bethesda: the reason for releasing the trailer was to appease toxic fans who had started threatening the studio. You know, in the classic gamer style: do it my way, or I’ll get angry and hold my breath. And really, their perspective on the gaming world and hype makes perfect sense.
“The video game industry has a short memory. All those companies that start talking about their games years before releasing them are hurting themselves. The best time to start talking about them is six months before their release,” Nesmith said. And truly, seeing the public’s reaction to delays in ‘Beyond Good and Evil 2,’ which was announced in 2008 and apparently will be released in 2024, one has to agree: announcing your games far in advance only leads to frustration.
“Just the fact that everyone had taken out their torches and tridents led Todd to say, ‘Yes, we’re going to make Elder Scrolls 6. I promise, it’s real, it will happen.’ But he warns us that indeed, we will only hear about it half a year before it goes on sale. If it works for Bethesda, who are we to say otherwise, no matter how much hype we have?”
