Next Major Announcement

[AKB]

I'm just taking all bets for when we hear the next major announcement at this point (as in, main series or the like). It may be a while, I've seen people guess from next year to next decade.

To make it interesting, closest guess gets whatever product is announced, although this may be years down the line.

[MetaCthulhu]

Define "major", "announcement", and "major announcement", and then we're on.

[AKB]

Todd Howard ES game announcement.

[legoless]

Legends launch date: 2016. Can't imagine they'd delay it another year.

No point discussing TES VI, per this.

[Dark Spark]

Next up: Thu'um Go, an augmented reality game for mobile phones where you wander aimlessly around dark alleys, graveyards, police impound yards and busy roadways in search of Word Walls.

[MetaCthulhu]

If legends counts I go 2017, if it doesn't then I go with 2018.

[Will Zurmacht]

Dramatic reveal/presentation of TES VI at E3 2020. Todd mentioned that these days they like to have the game basically done by the time of the official reveal. 'Course we'll know about it long before the reveal.

I speculate that Beth wants to make a game off the main Fallout/TES cycle in the meanwhile. I further predict that an outside group will get another crack at the Fallout franchise before FO5.

[LugkAgumbuk]

Dramatic reveal/presentation of TES VI at E3 2020. Todd mentioned that these days they like to have the game basically done by the time of the official reveal. 'Course we'll know about it long before the reveal.

I speculate that Beth wants to make a game off the main Fallout/TES cycle in the meanwhile.

Like another TES Adventures:Redguard?

[Imbalance]

Eye of Argonia for 3DS, 3rd quarter 2017.

[legoless]

Like another TES Adventures:Redguard?

Another TESA will never happen. The series sold poorly and was thrown out by ZeniMax, and revisiting Cyrus 18 years later would be pretty weird considering the game wasn't even supported or available to purchase for most of that time.

[LugkAgumbuk]

Like another TES Adventures:Redguard?

Another TESA will never happen. The series sold poorly and was thrown out by ZeniMax, and revisiting Cyrus 18 years later would be pretty weird considering the game wasn't even supported or available to purchase for most of that time.

they could do it on drunken ''lol's''

[Will Zurmacht]

The exact timing of TES VI has I think to do with two things: the complexity of Beth's interim project(s), and unspecified technological progress Todd and co. would like to see before development begins in earnest.

Who knows about the second aspect, but I think a lot hinges on the first one. Beth is known for massive sandbox titles set in lore-rich worlds, but any new games or IPs could be radically smaller in scope and narrowly focused. If that's the case then the dev time for them could be significantly shorter than a title on the main cycle.

If my guess is right that Beth's new project(s) are more on the smaller/innovative side, rather than attempts at a new earthshaker IP in the TES mold, then 2021 (as Duruza mentioned in another thread) seems like a sweet spot of expectation, and admittedly my prediction of 2020 is pretty optimistic. lego's mention of 2022 seems like the pessimistic option on my assumptions, but if Beth's other project(s) lean toward larger and more complex, then I think it becomes the sweet spot.

[legoless]

lego's mention of 2022 seems like the pessimistic option on my assumptions, but if Beth's other project(s) lean toward larger and more complex, then I think it becomes the sweet spot.

Did I say that somewhere? 2020s definitely seems likely but I wouldn't really put a finger on it until we know more.

[Will Zurmacht]

Did I say that somewhere? 2020s definitely seems likely but I wouldn't really put a finger on it until we know more.

Todd's comments are worrying. The fact that they "don't even have the technology" makes me think it will be some sort of revolutionary attempt to push boundaries. Best case scenario, it's just a new engine. I kinda don't want to wait until 2022 for another VR Minecraft sim or whatever they have in mind.

Not trying to commit you (or Duruza) to a prediction, just using you both as points of reference. You're right of course that caution is the best approach, but where's the fun in caution?

[legoless]

Ah, yeah, hopefully that point of reference remains a joke.

[Damon]

Since Fallout 4's last DLC is out in a month apparently, I'm guessing, perhaps a bit on the soon side, that we'll see some sort of announcement in 2017.

Perhaps not an E3 '17 announcement necessarily, but a late-in-the-year tease of some sort that it's under development, with some amount of detail in E3 '18, though I have no prediction on when a release would be.

[Will Zurmacht]

Ah, yeah, hopefully that point of reference remains a joke.

Taking for a moment the 3 or 3.5 year development time between Skyrim and FO4 as a baseline. Add 1.5 years for the mystery project(s). Further assume that BGS works on one project at a time instead of juggling several major projects at once (reasonable?). Starting in mid 2016, 5 years of combined dev time for Project X and TES VI pushes us into mid 2021 already. Factor in unspecified tech progress that needs to happen? Climate change, stock market volatility... (j/k)

On the other hand if Project X is hammered out in a year and the team goes full bore into TES VI for a 3 year cycle, they might have something ready by 2020, but the more I think about it, the rosier my prediction looks and the more sobering your jest does.

Any considerations I'm missing?

[AngryNord]

Any considerations I'm missing?

Yes - they've clearly said that they are working on TWO projects, not just one (and none of them are TES:VI).

[Will Zurmacht]

Yes - they've clearly said that they are working on TWO projects, not just one (and none of them are TES:VI).

Well, I tried to acknowledge the possibility of that by usually putting a plural sign near the word project. If one or more of the projects is something on the order of Fallout Shelter then it might not consume that much of Beth's dev time. If there are two projects teed up and both of them are complex, then it looks even worse for TES.

[Fiar]

Any considerations I'm missing?

Yes - they've clearly said that they are working on TWO projects, not just one (and none of them are TES:VI).

I rarely take these assessments at face value. Classic misdirection is saying no, when they mean yes but want space to work in.

I've heard people say that Bethesda is generally pretty honest, and even if this is the case, the fact that they said that it's a ways out tells me they want to be left alone regarding TES.


As for major announcements.....I imagine that we might get more details at E3 2018 or QuakeCon 2018. Bethy (well, I guess Zenimax) kinda runs the latter now, so it's plausible.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

2018 at the soonest. I'm going with 2020.

[LugkAgumbuk]

2018 at the soonest. I'm going with 2020.

Now, that makes me sad...so long to wait

[The SheoDovah]

One or both unnamed projects. It's not TES. Bethesda rarely tries to hide it by using the "unnamed not TES projects" and tend to just announce it out of the blue. At least, use that method when they have it almost done and to show off a lot of stuff to generate hype to avoid being distracted by it during development. They are probably thrice the size they were at the launch of Skyrim and probably have a third team working on either both projects or on support duty whilst both Fallout and TES teams are working on both projects.

[Dohva.]

Since Fallout 4's last DLC is out in a month apparently, I'm guessing, perhaps a bit on the soon side, that we'll see some sort of announcement in 2017.

Perhaps not an E3 '17 announcement necessarily, but a late-in-the-year tease of some sort that it's under development, with some amount of detail in E3 '18, though I have no prediction on when a release would be.

I approve of this message. When Skyrim's dlcs were being dished out, Bethesda didn't have any other games to announce. Considering their latest press release, I'd say that 2017 would be the next mention. Then again, none of us have a crystal ball so all we can do is eagerly wait to see what happens.

[The SheoDovah]

Techincally, we do in Oblivion.

Bethesda seems to be leaning towards almost finished games before announcing it and it works. Gives them a lot of time to stick to their release date, marketing knows what to market and showing off enough gameplay to keep us interested.

I can see the Sci-fi(unsure if they confirmed one is Sci-Fi) IP being their answer to Mass Effect. Or it's TES in space. Please don't be TES in space.

That said, i kinda want to see them do spin off of TES games again with fully voiced, predetermined protags just to see how they can tell a story.