‘The Elder Scrolls 6,’ ‘Skyrim 2’ Won’t Be Out For A Long, Long Time
Fans of The Elder Scrolls series are going to be shouting at dragons for their fix for a long time to come, mostly thanks to Fallout 4; Bethesda has put work on The Elder Scrolls 6 (or possibly Skyrim 2; more on that later) on hold indefinitely in favor of supporting Fallout 4 for years to come.
As Peter Hines told MCV, “I think Fallout 4 can top Skyrim and be our biggest release ever. But we will see.” And Bethesda plans to continue supporting Fallout 4 for as long as they can; it seems that for at least a year after its release, Bethesda’s developers will continue to be dedicated to Fallout 4.
It’s certainly Bethesda’s most ambitious project to date. As IGN is reporting, Fallout 4 has more dialogue (and thus, likely more content) than Fallout 3 and Skyrim combined, these being Bethesda’s two biggest projects to date. It’s a project worthy of a lot of dedication and attention, and Bethesda doesn’t like splitting teams. Since the Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls development teams are essentially the same (the games aren’t all that different at their core), The Elder Scrolls 6 won’t be going ahead until Fallout 4 no longer needs attention.
“It’s rare to have franchises like the ones we have and to have people joking about ‘when is Skyrim 2 coming out?’ The reason they say that is because generally speaking that’s what you’d be getting with another publisher in charge. They’d be spitting out a Skyrim 2 the year after or two years later. That’s just not how we view it.”
On the other hand, some interesting details have been revealed. Although it may have been nothing more than a slip of the tongue, Hines did refer to the next Elder Scrolls game repeatedly as Skyrim 2. This isn’t exactly gospel but it does suggest that the next Elder Scrolls game won’t be a follow-up on Morrowind or Oblivion, as previously suggested. The discovery of the “new” trademark of Redguard has also been debunked as referring to a 1998 game, The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard.
Fan theories remain divided on where the game will be set; will it, in fact, be Skyrim 2? The debate still rages, with many fans proposing Argonia or Black Marsh as the setting of the next Elder Scrolls adventure. Fan debate is going to have to tide people over for now; it’s likely that the earliest information about The Elder Scrolls 6 won’t be showing up before 2017.
In the meantime, Fallout 4 is shaping up to be pretty epic. So things could be a lot worse.
[Image courtesy of Bethesda Entertainment (edited)]
