The Elder Scrolls V Probable Locations Skyrim
There is speculation that the next game could be based in
Skyrim. The name has been trademarked by Bethesda, which could indicate that there is an upcoming game called Skyrim, as there was for
Knights of the Nine and
Shivering Isles. A simple search at the
US Trademarks website reveals four applications for Skyrim as a Trademark, three from Bethesda, and one from a telecommunications company in Florida. Bethesda filed for the trademark in October 2006. It is interesting to note that Bethesda filed for
Oblivion's trademark on June 21, 1995, but abandoned the trademark, only to refile for it on April 4, 2003 about 3 years before release (2006). Morrowind followed a similar 3 year pattern (1999 to 2002). Skyrim will not follow this same three year release, since it has yet to be announced. Also
Michael Kirkbride, a contract developer for Bethesda, is rumored to be working on Nordic lore with text such as
The Seven Fights of The Aldudagga.
Summerset Isle
There is some speculation that TES V will take place in
Summerset Isle, due to various rumors about Daedra Worship increasing and a boycott of Imperial goods in
Oblivion (although it is important to note that there are several equally 'significant' rumors about events in other provinces in Oblivion, namely
Black Marsh,
Morrowind,
Orsinium,
Elsweyr and, of course,
Skyrim). It is possible this could follow the pattern set in Morrowind, which had rumors mentioning trouble in
Cyrodiil. But of course, this logic also holds true for all the other provinces mentioned. (And again, it is worth noting that none of the events mentioned in rumors about Cyrodiil in
Morrowind actually occurred in Oblivion; only
those prophecies which spoke of general plot events, namely a Daedric invasion, not specific to Cyrodiil)
In fact, it was rumored that TES IV would take place on
Summerset Isle, due to developer comments from before Morrowind's release, but those proved to be untrue.
In terms of gameplay, Summerset Isle would be a convenient choice because it is surrounded by water, providing a natural boundary to the playable game-world, much like Morrowind had by taking place in
Vvardenfell and not the mainland area of the province. In Oblivion, the invisible walls at the edges of the mostly land-locked Cyrodiil were a cause for complaints by some fans.
Probable Timeline
The events of TES V may take place 200 years after the events of
Oblivion. A
1up.com post states that the first Elder Scrolls novel "partly bridges the gap for the next game, which is set 200 years after the Oblivion crisis." The retail site from which this information came quickly removed the reference to the next Elder Scrolls game from its listing; it is unknown whether this is due to a factual error or if the retail site accidentally leaked information that was meant to be released at a later date.
Production
It is speculated that Bethesda started full development of
The Elder Scrolls V after the completion of
Fallout 3. From previous quotes by
Todd Howard, it is suspected that preproduction work for TESV took place during
Fallout 's development. At one point, there was
news that pointed towards a 2010 release date; however, that appears to be false, as the game has not been announced, and a 2010 release date would leave little time for promotion of the game. The 2010 date was always regarded as questionable, since
Fallout 3 used the same basic engine as
Oblivion, and still required 31 months of development time (the 2010 date allowed for a maximum of 26 months). It is important to note that Bethesda has announced that there will be no more downloadable content for
Fallout 3, which indicates that Bethesda is increasingly focusing their developers on their next standalone game release.
On April 27, 2009, Pete Hines was quoted by IGN as saying that no new
Elder Scrolls title was expected to be announced "anytime soon." This was done along the announcement of the
Elder Scrolls novels to be penned by renowned fantasy author Greg Keyes. The announcement is ambiguous, and no more specific details were given. The interview can be found
here.
In a more recent interview for Gamasutra dated June 25th, 2009, Hines let slip that "On the flip side, Todd [Howard] and his team have their hands full with
The Elder Scrolls and
Fallout." This suggests that some new
Elder Scrolls title, be it
Elder Scrolls V or a spinoff along the vein of
Redguard and
Battlespire, is in production in some capacity. That interview can be found
here.
MMO Elder Scrolls
Speculation about a MMORPG (Mass Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) that takes place in the TES universe has mainly been started by ZeniMax's
press release that they had formed a new company, ZeniMax Online Studios. This rumor gained some credibility after
ZeniMax bought the domain name elderscrollsonline.com. As of now, the site has no content. Bethesda's Pete Hines announced in an interview with Gamespot that this was simply to prevent someone from registering the domain name in case they needed it(i.e. fallout.com & oblivion.com). when the conversation turned to Zenimax's new MMORPG studio, Hines stayed quiet saying, "They aren't talking about what they are doing and won't be for a long time,". the interview can be found
here
ZeniMax are known to have licensed the HeroEngine MMORPG development tool for "a stealth project", to quote the
HeroEngine website.
Reply With Quote
anyone?
Originally Posted by Dan Scott 
.
Bookmarks