A while ago, Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax was spotted stumbling out of a seedy back alley bar, clutching only a bottle of gin and a domain name -- elderscrollsonline.com. The Internet leapt on this with fervor, eagerly anticipating the news that it could only hope was coming -- an Elder Scrolls MMORPG. Guess what ... the Internet was right about that.
Bethesda's very own Pete Hines has confirmed that yes, an MMORPG installment of the wildly popular Elder Scrolls series is on the way. In the announcement, Hines also stated that the company had already put $300 million into the project -- that's a fair bit o' gold! Said Hines:
I don't think that this funding changes our focus in terms of what we are about and are trying to accomplish. The additional resources will allow us to expand our publishing efforts-both our own titles and those of other studios-and to pursue development of more titles, working with internal and external development teams.
So there you have it. Elder Scrolls Online is a go, and I think it's safe to say that World of Warcraft may have its first legitimate challenge to the MMORPG throne, don't you? We'll see what happens in the future, but for now, Hines is saying nothing else. Personally, I am eager as hell to watch this one develop.
[Thanks Aerox]
[Update: It seems that the original story which Jim sourced in this article jumped to more than a few conclusions. We just got off of the phone with Bethesda's Manager of PR and Marketing Erin Losi, who wanted to clarify a few things.
For one, Bethesda has not announced or confirmed that an Elder Scrolls MMO is in the works. As she points out, the $300 million dollars in question was received by Bethesda's parent company, ZeniMax Media. This money will be invested across a "multititude of projects."
As for the an Elder Scrolls MMO, Losi told us that no such announcement has been made. Looking at the above quote from the original QJ.net story, it appears that some drastic leaps in logic were made to reach conclusion of a "confirmation." Regarding the registered Elder Scrolls Online domain, Losi points out that this is standard practice, where Bethesda will snatch up a number of domains related to their licenses.
We apologize for any confusion we might have caused with this story, and for now, the Elder Scrolls MMO simply doesn't exist. - Nick]
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i knew it!
I saw a mudcrab the other day...horrid creatures
OH SNAP!
There goes another 100 billion hours of real life productivity...
Not that anyone minds.
What news from other parts of Tamriel?
Look at the muscles on you.
Why won't my comment post?
Oh christ...I poured 275 hours into Oblivion and Shivering Isles combined. This may be worse.
You fight like a pregnant cow!
Oh well, I never wanted to accomplish anything with my life anyway.
Silence, you s'wit!
Seriously though, do want.
This is huge news. This is news as big as Morrowind. Daggerfall even! Scarily big. If they could focus the power of the gamers who will play this into something like Folding@home, we'd already have evolved into purely energy-based life-forms.
I mean, really, holy crap on a stick!
*knew it was coming and is still in shock*
I guess it's safe to assume it'll be PC only?
Oh yea Jim? Well, you fight like a dairy farmer!
(Does it work in reverse?)
Oh geez. I poured 150 hours into Oblivion on 360 and never came close to finishing it.
This could be huge. If they replace all the NPCs and businesses and stuff with real life people's characters... shit. This game could replace everything ever.
Interesting. Good luck to Bethesda, who also have to do Fallout 3 right there!
And there are too many interesting MMOs coming! And less free time to play them...
Now it does:
Jim, no where in the provided link, or THEIR provided link from SPOnG is there a direct confirmation from Hines that this is in fact the game. Seems to be speculating that it's a confirmation. So that headline seems pretty misleading...
There is no confirmation of an Elder Scrolls MMO in any of the sources there.
So if they do, in fact, release an MMO I'm hoping that they'll stick with the same level up and ability skills like they always have. Letting the player use what they want to use and when, instead of shoehorning all the cool stuff into separate classes.
Spong is a piece of shit site. I do not trust their articles at all, I await another source to post about this news.
I'm still so deeply obsessed with Oblivion. This would definitely be a worth-while MMORPG and I am positive it will turn out perfect. I am so excited about this.
I am a big ass elder scrolls fan so you count mme in... I'm playing it :)
i.....just.....creamed myself........ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
This will kill World of Warcraft for me. Hands down. Buying it on Day 1; I've already made up my mind.
No amounts of screaming FUCK YES and DO WANT and HOLY SHIT could amount to the wonder and joy I feel right now. I am that big of an Elder Scrolls whore.
how the fuck does that confirm a mmog?
i'd play this
Here's the thing; when are they setting this game? Post Morrowind / Oblivion? Is the Nerevarine reincarnated walking around doing his Nerevar thing?
I'd be interested if this set the MMO in the past. Let the players dynamically develop things that would start to show up in the later SP games (i.e. Elder Scrolls V).
Very cool, in any case. I can only hope we can travel back to Morrowind.
*orgasm
Guildie: Hey, I need you to debuff this boss when he attacks
Me: I hear you're good with light armor.
Guildie: Wait... What?
Me: Good day.
(BTW, not too excited about the news, seeing from my experience that 90% of all MMO users are absolute dicks)
i'd pay monthly to let bestha stick things in my pooper, so this is a great deal!
NWAH
I've fought mudcrabs more fierce than you!
Hahah
I really want a good mmo to play on my console, that would be badassery.
I hope this doesn't mean the end of the single player ES games.
SHIT.
*jizz* Now i must change my boxers!
I'm hoping this is for the 360 as well as the obvious PC. I will cry if not.
[In regards to the update]YOU CANT DO THIS TO ME.
Do want Do Want Do Want.
D#@n You Bethesda! Tell me its true!
Let's hope it's just corporate stalling. I want to see an Elder Scrolls MMO more than I want Ron Workman.
And that's a lot.
This is a wish come true take a great single player experience and add your buddies. This is on my list of must haves.
My list of must haves when I read about it.
1. Call of Duty 4
2. Rock band
3. FallOut 3
4. Gears of War
5. Mass Effect
And now at number SIX
6. Elder Scrolls MMORPG..
Jim you helped to break our hearts...
Don't worry Jim, you didn't upset me. I could care less about that game. I knew something was wrong when you mentioned 300 million dollars being spent on the game. That sounded a little high to me. Anyway, this game would sell well, but it wouldn't knock Blizzard off the top. They could just make anohter expansion, or a whole new game.
Don't worry Jim, you didn't upset me. I could care less about that game. I knew something was wrong when you mentioned 300 million dollars being spent on the game. That sounded a little high to me. Anyway, this game would sell well, but it wouldn't knock Blizzard off the top. They could just make anohter expansion, or a whole new game.
You know it's coming.
Bah. Bah humbug. I'm glad this turned out not to be true. First a Star Wars probably KotOR based MMO with Bioware and then an Elder Scrolls MMO? Game developers do know that people still enjoy single player games, right? Not every franchise in the entire world has to be made into an MMO, you know.
Look, I know a metric shit-ton of people enjoy MMOs, and that's great. And if ever there was a potential for a MMO to be awesome, it would totally be one based on Elder Scrolls. But for me personally, MMOs in general count for less than jack and shit. Dear game developers, if you must make an MMO out of your awesome single player franchises then by all means do so, but don't do it at the expense of the awesome single player games on which your MMO is based, please. That's all I ask.
FUCK!
yeah
Someone que the "bloo bloo bloo" powerdown music.
Someone cue* the "bloo bloo bloo" powerdown music.
But... But... but I just finished my nirnroot costume for the midnight launch release party! Now what do I do with it?
Even if it weren't too late for halloween, who wants to dress up as a plant?
And, yes, if anyone cares, I'm still bitter over the whole "Ultima IX sucked complete ass because most of the developers got pulled off of it to work on Ultima Online" thing.
Phew... Dodged a bullet there. Seriously, there's no way in hell this would work without completely ruining what makes the series great.
i am so happy that they are running with the series, if they could somehow squeeze the good of the games into an online version id pretty much need new pants so fingers crossed on that one
What a load. They should just cop to it already. I'm not asking for a release date or anything like that, just the acknowledgment that it does exist. Because, let's face it - they are making this now, or will in the near future.
@Im OK
Although it may make me sound ancient, I agree with the whole Ultima IX debacle. I mean, look at Blizzard; what was the last non-WoW thing they've done? (OK, Starcraft 2, but I'm sure any of us would be able to make a blockbuster game with 80% of South Korea's economy fueling it)
now why would you.... :'( .... you just made me cry :(... I was so looking forward to it :'(
I'm crying right now... no es mmo??.. :(((((((((....... c'mon..... Please?!?!?!....... Please?!?!?!??!?!?!....c'mon.... I really doooo waannntttt. I've spend few months of my life in es :P ... give more.. more more more....
*suicides*
This is quite possibly the only way I would ever play a MMORPG. And that's even knowing that it is likely that I would enjoy one such as WoW, if I ever played it...I still won't try it. I don't want to become a MMO zombie.
Of course, I would be more pumped for a new Elder Scrolls single player game than an MMO. That said, Oblivion owns my testes so I'll play whatever they do come up with.
So he said there was one, then realized he was dreaming and in reality, there is no ES MMO?
@akathatoneguy
This is quite possibly the only way I would ever play a MMORPG. And that's even knowing that it is likely that I would enjoy one such as WoW, if I ever played it...I still won't try it. I don't want to become a MMO zombie.
That, really, is also the main reason I don't care that much about MMOs as well. It's not that I actively hate them or think they suck or whatever, as my previous posts may have implied, it's just that I have no interest in pouring the vast quantities of time into them that most of them seem to require. Heck, even Oblivion itself almost reaches that point given how huge it is, but at least Oblivion has an ending at some point (which I have yet to reach, myself) even with all the DLC and expansions and whatnot. Eventually you'll just run out of things to do (assuming you don't bother with player-created mods and such, then it could go on forever). Most MMOs don't seem to have this issue, by design.
Well, and then there's the whole monthly fee thing. That's another thing that makes me shy away from MMOs. I see the reasoning behind it in that they have to maintain the servers and all that, and most of them are still relatively cheap and all, but even so I still have no interest in paying an additional X dollars a month for a game on which I've already spent full price. Guild Wars tempted me with the no monthly fees deal, but I still didn't bite, primarily because of the first reason in the previous paragraph.
Hmmm.. I'd get it for PS3. I'm not very hip on the idea of paying the Xbox Live fee on top of the MMO fee.
NOOOOOOOOOO I NEEDS IT!!!