Next Major Announcement

[AngryNord]

They are probably thrice the size they were at the launch of Skyrim

Why does this always get flung around as fact? All evidence points to the FO4 team being no bigger than the Skyrim team.

[Fiar]

They are probably thrice the size they were at the launch of Skyrim

Why does this always get flung around as fact? All evidence points to the FO4 team being no bigger than the Skyrim team.

A quick google search supports this. Both teams were apparently made by roughly 100 people.

[The SheoDovah]

Bethesda are still a growing developer. They are probably the smallest out of the big developers(i'm not including their publisher arm) and since Skyrim, they have started to expand due to them getting into the mainstream. Fallout also helped and they are slowly growing. They are rather hands off as a publisher, i think and just handle publisher duties. As a developer, two teams is a sensible idea and i believe, Bioware uses the same method. Team A works on Mass Effect, Team B works on Dragon Age. And I can see them having Team C(bethesda) handling patches and support due to welll, their rather hard earned reputation as Bugthesda. I won't be surprised if they are currently trying to get the last bit of juice out of Creation(which is said to be a modified Gamebyro) engine or just working on a brand new engine due to it's age showing.

I do kinda hope Todd Howard is restricted to TES and allows someone else to handle the new IPs. Nothing against him but seeing new franchises by Bethesda in someone's hands is an interesting concept.

[legoless]

I'm pretty sure the BGS team has had almost nothing to do with Bethesda Softworks and the publishing side since like 2001.

[The SheoDovah]

Yep. I would imagine they only speak to their publishing arm about release dates or marketing stuff as i assume marketing to be under that arm. Bethesda the publisher has come a long way. I mean, 10 years ago, they had to use Ubisoft to get Oblivion on the PS3 and i think, barely could afford to self publish. Now? They have a lot of contracts with a lot of devs, a lot of IPs and are still developing their own stuff. Unlike a certain publisher that gained a lot of steam in 10 years and ceased game development whilst having the most wanted sequel of all time and yet to confirm if it's a thing.

I will admit, the two new projects being open world kinda harms my interest in it as i can't help but seldom thing TES with X or TES in Y. Hopefully, they'll prove me wrong.

[Crawldragon]

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.

I dunno, I think it could happen. ZeniMax have been really cracking the whip on getting more profits out of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Consider that they pushed TES into the MMO market haphazardly despite BGS stating multiple times that the games are meant to be single player only. A smaller series of adventure games with a more modern design sensibility produced by a smaller developer might work out. I think the only major issue with Adventures is that it's almost assumed by the market at large that all fantasy games must have RPG elements or else it automatically sucks, which admittedly is quite a hurtle to jump over.

If Todd Howard thinks they can get away with setting aside years for a new game, it's probably because ZeniMax are really happy with the success of Doom 4 and can wait for a bit. However, the other possibility is that ZeniMax are planning something more sinister with the IP. I give two years at most before a major announcement, not necessarily from Bethesda Game Studios. A Bethesda Softworks E3 announcement of a smaller project in 2018 is my guess.

[The SheoDovah]

To be fair, TES wasn't that big at the time. I think, it was launched just around the time as Morrowind or after it and TES didn't really hit the mainstream until a few years back with Skyrim. ESO has helped to launch it further and well, Bethesda seems content to just focus on main series games. They are barely involved with ESO and well, i think, they may have put in "As long as it doesn't screw up our established lore, go ahead." clause. Granted, one only need to look at the retcon thread in the lore forum to see how well that's worked but still.

[legoless]

Redguard was pre-Morrowind and was the second flop after Battlespire. In fact, PC sales were so poor that the Eye of Argonia sequel would have possibly moved to PS2. That ship has obviously sailed, so don't count on another TESA. Another TES adventure game? Sure, that'd be cool. Just no Cyrus.

[all_freed]

June of 2017 is the announcement. they might make a teaser a week before e3 too

tell your friends of this exlusive news first on uesp!

[The SheoDovah]

It won't be TESVI. It will be their unnamed IPs as i think, they would want to get those two out the door first and then focus all efforts on TESVI. If it is TESVI, I will eat my copy of Skyrim and my beard.

[Crawldragon]

It won't be TESVI. It will be their unnamed IPs as i think, they would want to get those two out the door first and then focus all efforts on TESVI.

Would you be more excited by a new IP, or would you be concerned that Todd Howard's team were stretching themselves too thin? I'd be a little worried. And I'm still scared of ZeniMax getting greedy with the BGS IPs.

If it is TESVI, I will eat my copy of Skyrim and my beard.

Will the beard be a garnish or a side dish?

[The SheoDovah]

It's more of me wanting to see what a team led by someone else can do then worrying about the todd's team stretching themselves thin.

The beard may be garinished with the tiny little onions after being pan seared for a few minutes.

[scribbane]

E3 2019. End of Bethesda's conference, the stage goes dark and we hear a snippet of what will become our main theme (I imagine it will be some sort of reimagining of the Skyrim theme, or at the very least incorporate elements, but will airier and lighter{I'm not very musically inclined}). As the music swells, on screen we see "The Elder Scrolls VI", no subtitle at that point, no date at that point. Fast forward a year, next E3. The name is revealed to be Alinor, and it will release holiday 2020.

My guess, at least.

I suspect we'll be going to the Summerset Isles, or Alinor now, because I think we'll see some sort of continuation of Skyrim. Not in a direct story sequel, but in the same way that until Skyrim, there was a bit of continuity in the world, taking place in the latter third 3rd Era. With the success of Skyrim, I imagine there's a practicality to continuing in that "setting". Rather than revisiting previous locales, a new setting for a main game seems logical, and Summerset Isles seem the most "traditional" to welcome new fans. It also allows for the continuity of the Aldmeri Dominion, and we even got a good intro to the Psijic Order.

[AngryNord]

E3 2019. End of Bethesda's conference, the stage goes dark and we hear a snippet of what will become our main theme (I imagine it will be some sort of reimagining of the Skyrim theme, or at the very least incorporate elements, but will airier and lighter{I'm not very musically inclined}). As the music swells, on screen we see "The Elder Scrolls VI", no subtitle at that point, no date at that point. Fast forward a year, next E3. The name is revealed to be Alinor, and it will release holiday 2020.

My guess, at least.

I suspect we'll be going to the Summerset Isles, or Alinor now, because I think we'll see some sort of continuation of Skyrim. Not in a direct story sequel, but in the same way that until Skyrim, there was a bit of continuity in the world, taking place in the latter third 3rd Era. With the success of Skyrim, I imagine there's a practicality to continuing in that "setting". Rather than revisiting previous locales, a new setting for a main game seems logical, and Summerset Isles seem the most "traditional" to welcome new fans. It also allows for the continuity of the Aldmeri Dominion, and we even got a good intro to the Psijic Order.

Ain't gonna happen. They've said several times that they won't reveal games until they're near ready for release.

[scribbane]

Attitudes can change. Pressure from fans/investors/etc could result in them needing to show progress on one of their biggest IPs.

[Mefris Elmek]

Attitudes can change. Pressure from fans/investors/etc could result in them needing to show progress on one of their biggest IPs.

The investors can just call and ask about the progress or,even better,get a private presentation.As for the fans,Bethesda (like Rockstar) doesn't give in to this kind of pressure.They will show their game when they know it's a few months off from release.

Jess:[...]I have identified that which makes me comforted that when you do eventually announce Elder Scrolls VI it will probably be coming out sooner and we won't have to wait too long.Fingers crossed!
Pete Hines:Yeah,I don't think in general we really want to do things anymore where you start to hear about it 2 years beforehand[...]I just tend to find it hard to stick with and follow stuff,even the stuff I'm interested in.I prefer "I know about it and I know when I'm going to play it" as opposed to "When is that coming out again?"

Pete Hines:[...]Todd and his team have earned the right,given the quality of this stuff,to be able to say "look,we know everyone really wants Elder Scrolls VI but we as creative people want to be able to do stuff that we are really passionate about" and I think once you see how the next two titles come out and then how Elder Scrolls VI kind of ties into what those games are doing I think it'll all make sense but I think it's going to be a while before all those things happen.

Given what Todd and Pete have been saying these past couple of years I'd say the earliest we'll be hearing about TES VI is 2023 and that's me being very,very optimistic.I think Pete said recently that they haven't even started working on the game,at all.No pre-production,nada.Considering Bethesda's games take about 5-6 years to make that would place the "release window" around 2022/23 and thats if they start working on it right now.Obviously things can change,they could increase the size of their team for example and that would speed the production time but I still say anything before 2022 is just wishfull thinking.Hope I'm wrong tho,Waiting another 5 or more years for TES VI will probably make me go mad

[The SheoDovah]

They are likely working on a new engine due Creation being tapped out and hopefully, it is a brand new one that they are crafting instead of duck taping it all together and calling it a new one. They are working on two unnamed IPs that aren't fallout or TES and are likely wanting to get them done first. Assuming that next year, they have the first one ready and it's 2020 that both IPs are out, done and support cycles are finished. TESVI is likely to take 5-6 years. Though, i would not be surprised if TESVI is very simple in a bid to push paid mods. :-/

That said, they may just do Skyrim forever and they announce a direct sequel to Skyrim. Skyrim 2. Then remaster that a billion times and turn TES into the Skyrim scrolls.

[AKB]

One of the few things they actually made clear at this E3 was that they are not announcing things not coming out the same year. Everything announced, as little as it was, was due to come out the same year. The next game, when it's announced, will be out within the same year, probably in November.

[The SheoDovah]

I did hear rumours of a Bethesda Sci-fi game floating around that takes place on a space station but the PC grows it, expands it. I have no evidence to back this up but if that is what they are working on atm, that would be an interesting thing. Though, if it's Settlementcraft:In Spaaaaaaaaaceee, that will be eer... meeeh.

The publisher arm tends to allow announcements of games that are out the following year. Dishonoured 2, Doom(Though that was in development hell and almost being a modern day borefest instead of Doom on steroids) etc..

I do wish reports of "TESVI wasn't announced." would stop as that is obvious, not even news.

I can see a Fallout 4 interquel or a non-numbered game occuring within 3 years time but not by Bethesda due to their hands being full.

[Cassandra]

My sister just said the other day about how she'd heard something similar, that they were working on a sci-fi rpg set in space. I wish I knew where people got the idea from, if there's any truth behind the claim. It sounds cool.

[The SheoDovah]

I wonder if it got mixed up with Bioware's Anthem?

If it is Bethesda's next game, it better have decent space combat as that would be a major point for me. Though, if it's Bethesda's answer to No Man Sky, that will suck.

[Cassandra]

Maybe? I really don't know. Tbh, I don't keep up with upcoming games in the least. If my sister or the forums don't tell me about it, I don't know about it. I've got enough older games lined up for me to play!

[Mefris Elmek]

My sister just said the other day about how she'd heard something similar, that they were working on a sci-fi rpg set in space. I wish I knew where people got the idea from, if there's any truth behind the claim. It sounds cool.

Hidden:

4 years ago ZeniMax (Bethesda's parent company) filed several trademark applications for a project called "Starfield".The trademark applications covered everything from "Computer game software for use with computers and video game consoles" to DLCs,manuals,trading cards,magazines,t-shirts etc.Since then the original trademark applications have been abandoned but last year ZeniMax refiled a trademark application for Starfield,this time just covering software without physical merchandise (and adding mobile devices to the mix).The trademark application filed last year can be found here.

People have been speculating that the game will be a sci-fi RPG based on the title and the fact that Bethesda have said several times that they would like to dabble in other settings besides post-apocalyptic/fantasy.Before E3 someone on 4chan pretanding to be a game dev started rumors that the game will be shown at E3 and that it was a sci-fi rpg made by Bethesda.You would have one planet serving as a hub world and you could travel between planets,some of which would be procedurally generated.He also said that the worlds of Fallout,TES and Starfield were actually part of the same universe.All hogwash obviously.

My guess is that Starfield is Bethesda's next RPG and we'll be hearing about it next year at E3 with the other project coming later in 2020.

They are likely working on a new engine due Creation being tapped out and hopefully, it is a brand new one that they are crafting instead of duck taping it all together and calling it a new one.

I doubt that they're working on a game engine right now considering they're juggling 2 new projects and they also want to support the Creation Club with actual developers.Creating a new game engine from scratch would take a huge amount of resources,manpower and time.More likely they're going to keep updating the Creation Engine (as Gamebase push out updates for Gamebryo) and adding new features.

They've been using this engine (in a form or another) for more then a decade now so I agree,it's time for a change.Personally I hope they just use id Tech 6 for their next games instead of developing their own engine.Doom was a perfect showcase of what the engine can do and I think a new Elder Scrolls game would look gorgeous in that engine.

[Cassandra]

Oh, thanks so much!

See, who needs to research video games, when other people can just do it for you?

[Will Zurmacht]

E3 2021

Todd confirms end-of-year 2022 release of Starfield. Turns out the projects I speculated about way back in 2016 were both on the more massive side, with FO76 requiring ongoing development resources to boot. It continues to be proven that one can really never be too pessimistic.

I presume this pushes TES:VI back three or four years past Starfield, to 2025-26.