The Elder Scrolls VI on Next-Gen Consoles

[Dark Spark]

The board is set. The PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One will be out before Christmas this year. By my reckoning, The Elder Scrolls VI title will be announced four seconds short of forever.

Given what we currently know about how these two nifty black boxes will handle our stimuli for years to come, to where and to what end you feel/want/fear Bethesda will take the next title? The cloud? Single-player exclusive, or will a multi-player option slip into the works? How will TESO perturb the path to TES VI?

[DikaSmausha]

I don't want multiplayer. If they put it in, only co-op. Otherwise, I am excited to see the console pushed to the limits.

[Elenath]

I don't have any idea about the technological aspects, not having investigated the new consoles, but I severely doubt that it will be multi-player. There's already too many cries of "ruined forever" based on the mere presense of an MMO, and if they move in that direction in the main games, well, it would sort of lend credence to the complaints. Besides which, ESO seems to be using the idea of "Elder Scrolls With Friends" as a major selling point, so undermining that by including the same feature in the more accepted games seems a little unwise.

I'm hoping that the only affect ESO will have is that they'll release the next game sooner to counteract the idea that the MMO is the end of the numbered games. I doubt that will actually happen, though.

I fear that Bethesda will feel obliged to stick far too closely to ESO's interpretation of the lands unvisited, and so overwhelm the feeling of exploration and discovery for those of us that play ESO. I dread the idea that ESO might be a subpar, lifeless RPG made by a team of inexperienced designers whose ideas nevertheless triumph over those of Bethesda's team when it comes time to explore that area in the numbered series.

...I'm just depressing myself. I'll stop now.

[GoatLiver]

How will TESO perturb the path to TES VI?

Honestly I think it will be a further step towards casualizing the series. The one thing that most worries me is to do with the landscape, as the whole landmass will be available wherever the next game is set will loose some degree of mystery. I get the feeling that their will be little room to move in terms of art design and we will loose any chance of seeing anything as unique as we did in Morrowind, if they ever decide to make a TESVI the province its set in will have to conform to what was seen in TESO. As has been said many times the console market is generally considered to be for the casual gamer and with this announcement I think that TESO will be aimed at that market in a similar manner to how Skyrim was.

[Musicman247]

I'm not sure how closely they will have to stick to what is in TSO, since the next ES game will take place thousands of years in the future comparatively.

As far as what the consoles will offer, my guess would be better graphics and better AI. Other than that, since both consoles have pretty much the same specs, including a hard drive, the experiences should be much more comparable to each other.

[The SheoDovah]

I doubt TSEO will have any affect on the main games due to Bethesda not being involved with the development of it. I think they are overseeing the lore so it doesn't break the lore of the games that are already released and to ensure that it doesn't conflict with any plans for any future TES games. Zenimax are developing it not Bethesda. Bethesda will most likely focus on the main games and may even scale back the casualising of it and return some of the features from Morrowind and make it more complicated whilst being acceptable. Such as requirements to join a guild that actually require you to be an apprentice in those skills. More then one guild for stealth,magic and combat and the return of the attributes. Bethesda knows that if they pull a Warcraft, they would lose more fans then they would gain due to most TES fans prefering the single player experience.

[Mattbott]

I think TES will probably continue to be a first person experience which i am very happy with

i agree with what Thelastdovah says above about simplicity vs complexity - i see no reason why you cant have in depth spell creation for those who want it

the modding part of the game will be on consoles in the future - and why not allow user made custom spells and potions (for example) to be uploaded and then shared with the community?

ES0 is not TES, i dont consider them any way influencing each other, much in the same way different versions of Batman movies don't mess each other up

[cybrxkhan]

On comparing TES and TESO to Warcraft and WoW: While it is true the original game that was Warcraft stopped after they got WoW out, I think there is a difference between that and TES. Warcraft, while popular, was still sort of a niche thing. Skyrim, on the other hand, sold 10 million copies (if I remember correctly), was all over the place (everyone and their mother on the internet has heard of arrow in the knee), it still has thousands and thousands of people playing (on steam as of me typing this, it is currently the sixth most played game), and is still selling thousands of copies.

Making TES VI would be a reasonable financial decision.

[DikaSmausha]

As has been said many times the console market is generally considered to be for the casual gamer and with this announcement I think that TESO will be aimed at that market in a similar manner to how Skyrim was.

I disagree with that statement. Casual gamers are more on the mobile devices.

[Kerr]

I don't think a new TES game will be announced for a good few years. For one thing they just finished up Skyrim and Bethesda probably want to make Fallout 4. But yeah TES: VI will almost certainly be on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Also keep multiplayer away from my TES: VI.

[cybrxkhan]

Also keep multiplayer away from my TES: VI.

Yes please. Co-op is fine as long as it's not the focus and it's more of just an optional fun thing to mess around with your friends, but no multiplayer. TES has always been a single-player experience. There is a TES:O for people who want a multiplayer experience.

[AngryNord]

Considering that Skyrim was started shortly after the release of Oblivion, and Oblivion was started even before the release of Morrowind, I'd think TES:VI has probably been in the planning stage for at least a year now.

[CBR JGWRR]

And won't be released to 2018 or so.

[House of the Wolf]

I imagine that Microsoft will (again) get the love and devotion, and Sony will remain the redheaded, adopted, stepchild--which would mean, probably, heavy use of the new (ridiculously creepy) Kinect. One of the games set to come out for Microsoft, already, has a feature that allows zombies/monsters to react to noises heard through the Kinect (especially while you're sneaking), so I imagine they'd work on something similar.

Whatever they do, I just hope they do it right and not rush/botch the release like they did for TES:V. And hopefully their love affair with Microsoft is mitigated and they actually treat Sony fans with many cuddles and kisses--especially given the [&@%!] Microsoft is pulling with their DRM.

[Musicman247]

Since both console's have nearly the same architecture, I don't foresee games being that different from each other on the different consoles. That also means updates should be the same for both consoles. And since they run on x86, patches should be the same for PC and consoles.

[House of the Wolf]

Oh, I almost forgot:

IF they have multi-player, I hope it's a drop-in/drop-out system of co-op.