ImmortalCX wrote: »

From the game director:

"We're also entering a new chapter of collaboration across Bethesda. By working more closely with Bethesda Game Studios across The Elder Scrolls, we have new opportunities to share ideas, align our efforts, and create even better experiences for players, all while continuing to build the future of ESO."

Does this mean TES VI is in crisis/panic mode and they are throwing bodies on the fire? The layoffs are bad, but the sentence above is more ominous to me. This means that the remaining ESO team has been repurposed to work on VI. (And to their credit, who wouldn't want to work on the new hotness?)

Skyrim is an all time favorite game for me, but it was lightning in a bottle. The competitive landscape was different, and the scope/scale of skyrim allowed it to endure in the modding community. Based on the (imo) dated and empty quality of Starfield, I am not expecting TES Vi to be a great or even good game. Players are more sophisticated now and its not clear that VI will come out looking / playing like a modern game. Releasing VI and making sure it does not suck is probably the only thing on Todd Howards mind 24/7. Alot is riding on it.

It is a shame, but I fear that ESO is being sacrificed for VI. And because VI is not near to release, this is probably a multi-year arrangement. All the creative energy that was going into ESO is being redirected.

I don't know what is happening internally, but I do know software, and when bodies are being thrown on a fire it is usually not a short term arrangement unless a product is near release (which there is no indication of ).

I think ESO is likely a better game than TESVI. You have a great and enduring MMO, vs what is likely to be a mid single player adventure game.

I hope they look at Fall of Avalon for inspiration for combat, that game iterated on Skyrims combat so well.

It will be nice to have new adventures in Tamriel without other players ruining the immersive experience.

My only concern with this "new chapter of collaboration" is that the flashy and very noisy amusement park mounts and weapons of ESO will find their way into TES VI.

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Dax_Draconis wrote: »

It will be nice to have new adventures in Tamriel without other players ruining the immersive experience.

My only concern with this "new chapter of collaboration" is that the flashy and very noisy amusement park mounts and weapons of ESO will find their way into TES VI.

The Elder Scrolls has always had flashy magic. I think Skyrim was kind of the oddball in that respect, since whenever you cast a spell the NPCs freak out about it.

Nowhere near as flashy as ESO. ESO reminds me of a cartoon in that regard. But I was specifically referring to the obnoxiously loud and flashy mounts and weapons and not spell magic.

Not sure what the point of focusing on a single player provincial spin-off is, if I wanted to be stranded to a single province I would not leave Vvardenfell, speaking of which TES VI will not have Vvardenfell in it, or the clockwork city or Fargrave or Summerset Isle so therefor it is already a terrible game by comparison.

Dax_Draconis wrote: »

It will be nice to have new adventures in Tamriel without other players ruining the immersive experience.

My only concern with this "new chapter of collaboration" is that the flashy and very noisy amusement park mounts and weapons of ESO will find their way into TES VI.

If its a single player game, couldn't they be disabled?

I remember in Skyrim the dragon bone armor was pretty nasty looking and there wasn't nearly as much customization as ESO. If the artists doing the garish "gacha" costumes are pop

Rungar wrote: »

i would wager someone on top of microsoft told someone on top of bethesda to get that game out the door. Hence the redistributed priority .. to actually make some money.

seems as if es6 will have code and assets from a number of bethesda games. When es6 is out the door i would expect more layoffs for zos, if not shuttering eso altogether since it competes with both wow and es6.

That is grim, but possible.

Their other game was cancelled, so unless they are tapped for something new, its possible Bethesda is shuttered. Dev costs at Bethesda are unavoidably high, all it has is intellectual capital. I don't know if they are able to fundamentally compete on ROI against asian studios. ESO could easily be a casualty.

OTH, they could give a free copy of ESO with every VI sold.... and reinvest in it...

From the game director:

"We're also entering a new chapter of collaboration across Bethesda. By working more closely with Bethesda Game Studios across The Elder Scrolls, we have new opportunities to share ideas, align our efforts, and create even better experiences for players, all while continuing to build the future of ESO."

When I read that I thought about how many of their workers probably didn't have as much to do since they are not making whole expansions anymore. It doesn't take the whole team that makes an expansion to give us a few quests here and there. So it makes sense to have them help over there so they don't get axed as well.

Tandor wrote: »

ImmortalCX wrote: »

This means that the remaining ESO team has been repurposed to work on VI.

Why should it mean that? It just means the two teams will collaborate, nothing more than that. It seems perfectly sensible to me, given that both teams are working on the same IP.

I expect the projected gross revenue of VI is in the billions. Continued revenue for ESO probably enough to cover the salaries with small profit.

VI is behind schedule. WAY behind schedule. If you are a manager at Microsoft you put all available bodies on VI. Even if the game sucks it will still make billions.

Maybe ESO was actually the reason for the delay of TES6?

A lot of ESO players—myself included—have already played other Elder Scrolls games, like Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. ESO was released 2 1/2 years after Skyrim and became a magnet for many Elder Scrolls fans.
ESO was very successful for a long time. Maybe many players would have turned away from it as soon as TES6 had came out?
Perhaps they wanted to avoid that and squeeze as much profit as possible out of ESO.

I fear the same thing as the OP. From now on, most resources will go toward the development of TES6 and not ESO.
When the new Elder Scrolls game is finally released—maybe in 2027 or 2028—fans will jump on it.

Personally, I’m already saving up for a new high-end PC so I can enjoy the game with the best possible graphics.
Who, two years later (2029, 30, or 31)—spoiled by optimal graphics and other benefits of a modern video game—would want to go back to ESO, which by then will be outdated in every respect?
There won’t be enough players left to make further investments in The Elder Scrolls Online worthwhile.
It would make more sense and be much more profitable to develop a new Elder Scrolls Online 2.0. Maybe released two to three years after the release of TES6.

Personally I would like this—especially if existing accounts and characters could be transferred to the new game. For a reasonable fee, if necessary.

Only the Divines, however, know what will become of the old ESO.

I'd like to add that these thoughts are my own personal theory. I certainly don't want to spread rumors or put forward conspiracy theories or anything of that nature.

I genuinely don’t understand how some of these business make money.

You have a product that is doing pretty well, bringing in revenue, so you cut that back to throw staff & money on some other project that is so over-hyped already it is almost guaranteed to not live up to expectations, both for the game & the profit margins.

But it seems the money men just want to chase the new in the hope of more dosh. If I was a shareholder or an investor, then I’d want something stable that gave a decent return rather than chasing the new shiny in the hope of a massive payout that might not happen.
But that’s probably why I don’t gamble!

Greed is detrimental to everything.

robwolf666 wrote: »

Probably just means TESVI will have a Crown Store and a billion in-game currencies. 😏

A game series that literally brought in-game microtransactions to mainstream home gaming will have a store? No way!

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

i think they will just coordinate more to try to be more efficient, profit from one another etc... i think eso and tes are benefiting each other and there is no cannibalization

The pushed the rework back that they were supposedly ready to plop on PTS just a week later (in other words, restructuring occurred 1 week before Warden PTS was supposed to drop) by a full 6-9 months (Q1 or Q2 next year).

Wdym ‘no cannibalization’??

Ardriel wrote: »

—spoiled by optimal graphics and other benefits of a modern video game—would want to go back to ESO, which by then will be outdated in every respect?
There won’t be enough players left to make further investments in The Elder Scrolls Online worthwhile.
It would make more sense and be much more profitable to develop a new Elder Scrolls Online 2.0. Maybe released two to three years after the release of TES6.

When I built my machine a few years ago with a 7900xtx paired with an Odyssey G9, I started out playing eye candy games, but when I finally installed ESO, the graphics held up pretty well. The graphical detail scales well with higher resolutions, imo. Unless you are looking for ultra realistic water reflections, they do alot with textures and art in ESO. I think its above the threshold where anyone will call it bad a decade from now. And they have been updating some of the older realms. My only gripe is the character creator, but they could update that too.

Dax_Draconis wrote: »

Lugaldu wrote: »

Rungar wrote: »

seems as if es6 will have code and assets from a number of bethesda games. When es6 is out the door i would expect more layoffs for zos, if not shuttering eso altogether since it competes with both wow and es6.

I don’t think that really makes sense – sure, ESO is competing with TES VI, but ultimately, once you’ve played through TES once, it might get one or two small expansions, but that’ll be it, and people will come back to ESO, where there’s much more content. When the remake of TES Oblivion came out, ESO also saw a rise in player numbers. And when the 18-year wait for TES VII begins (...presumely...), that’ll be all the more reason for many to stay/return to ESO.

Don't underestimate the power of mods prolonging the longevity of a single player TES game.

Also, many ESO players are essentially doing it single player. Guarantee those players will be siphoned off.

Its a scary possibility, but the bean counters may have recognized that releasing VI will hurt ESO sales, so they might as well put it in maintenance sooner. That would suck without all the class rebalances.