Could a possible failure from ESO hurt future TES games by Bethesda?

RazielSR · August 2014

A lot of badmouthing and bashing for this game in every corner from the whole internet.I was thinking if it is possible that this bad press ESO is having could create a bad feeling against TES universe in the future.

So, what do you think? Could a failure from an spin off like ESO start a future disaster for real TES games by Bethesda?

Mightylink · August 2014

ESO is just making me want the next single player Elder Scrolls even more because I want a better game then that.

EinionYrth · August 2014

Two different, incorrect spellings of "Bethesda" in one post. Impressive...

brandon · August 2014

If eso fails (doubt it) it will not hurt the tes franchise. Zenimax and Bethesda are 2 different companies, Bethesda has produced a lot of quality games and I really don't think one game by a different company is going to do anything.

RazielSR · August 2014

brandon wrote: »

If eso fails (doubt it) it will not hurt the tes franchise. Zenimax and Bethesda are 2 different companies, Bethesda has produced a lot of quality games and I really don't think one game by a different company is going to do anything.

But its all owned by the same one company, so if one branch lose a lot of monety, all the branches will be affected maybe?

raglau · August 2014

RazielSR wrote: »

A lot of badmouthing and bashing for this game in every corner from the whole internet.I was thinking if it is possible that this bad press ESO is having could create a bad feeling against TES universe in the future.

So, what do you think? Could a failure from an spin off like ESO start a future disaster for real TES games by Bethesda?

No. If you think about it, many games have experienced some hiccups in their paths but gone on to release highly acclaimed sequels etc.

In this case, ESO is well understood to be totally separate from TES. Gamers understand this and the press understand this. They are even split as two separate companies.

Also, I personally really enjoy ESO, sure it has faults, but essentially the spirit of the game is good. It's just the negative voices always tend to be loudest.

bertenburnyb16_ESO · August 2014

if there are still comming single player TES games
how many warcraft games have you seen after wow ... exactly

brandon · August 2014

RazielSR wrote: »

brandon wrote: »

If eso fails (doubt it) it will not hurt the tes franchise. Zenimax and Bethesda are 2 different companies, Bethesda has produced a lot of quality games and I really don't think one game by a different company is going to do anything.

But its all owned by the same one company, so if one branch lose a lot of monety, all the branches will be affected maybe?

I doubt it. Sure it would be a big blow losing a lot of money, but most people understand that it is 2 different companies and so they will still support Bethesda which would bring cash back. Yes some people will never buy another tes game again, but nowhere near enough not to make them money.

Edit: Oh and a great example is Assassin's creed. It has so much hate aimed at it, but it continues to be successful. All the AC games are made by the same company, so if a company that in a lot of peoples eyes made so many mistakes, but still continues on, then I don't see why two companies would be different.

raglau · August 2014

RazielSR wrote: »

But its all owned by the same one company, so if one branch lose a lot of monety, all the branches will be affected maybe?

The very reason it is split as two separate companies is to limit liability in case of failure etc. I own several businesses and each one is its own limited company; despite me owning them all so there being an over-arching interest, any debts accrued by one business failing are limited solely to that business.

That is one of the compelling reasons to structure your businesses in such a way.

Moonglum83 · August 2014

RazielSR wrote: »

brandon wrote: »

If eso fails (doubt it) it will not hurt the tes franchise. Zenimax and Bethesda are 2 different companies, Bethesda has produced a lot of quality games and I really don't think one game by a different company is going to do anything.

But its all owned by the same one company, so if one branch lose a lot of monety, all the branches will be affected maybe?

Pretty sure that is not how business works, especially brands under an umbrella organisation.

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

if there are still comming single player TES games
how many warcraft games have you seen after wow ... exactly

This is not WoW or Blizzard. I'm not trying to invalidate your argument, but this old comparison is becoming so overused it is on the verge of becoming a cliché.

What is you argument, anyway?

bertenburnyb16_ESO · August 2014

Moonglum83 wrote: »

RazielSR wrote: »

brandon wrote: »

If eso fails (doubt it) it will not hurt the tes franchise. Zenimax and Bethesda are 2 different companies, Bethesda has produced a lot of quality games and I really don't think one game by a different company is going to do anything.

But its all owned by the same one company, so if one branch lose a lot of monety, all the branches will be affected maybe?

Pretty sure that is not how business works, especially brands under an umbrella organisation.

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

if there are still comming single player TES games
how many warcraft games have you seen after wow ... exactly

This is not WoW or Blizzard. I'm not trying to invalidate your argument, but this old comparison is becoming so overused it is on the verge of becoming a cliché.

What is you argument, anyway?

my argument? that I fear we'll not see another single player TES soon

raglau · August 2014

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

Moonglum83 wrote: »

RazielSR wrote: »

brandon wrote: »

If eso fails (doubt it) it will not hurt the tes franchise. Zenimax and Bethesda are 2 different companies, Bethesda has produced a lot of quality games and I really don't think one game by a different company is going to do anything.

But its all owned by the same one company, so if one branch lose a lot of monety, all the branches will be affected maybe?

Pretty sure that is not how business works, especially brands under an umbrella organisation.

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

if there are still comming single player TES games
how many warcraft games have you seen after wow ... exactly

This is not WoW or Blizzard. I'm not trying to invalidate your argument, but this old comparison is becoming so overused it is on the verge of becoming a cliché.

What is you argument, anyway?

my argument? that I fear we'll not see another single player TES soon

TES is a VERY lucrative brand and has been for, well, forever. It's not going away even if ESO is the biggest flop on Earth.

RazielSR · August 2014

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

Moonglum83 wrote: »

RazielSR wrote: »

brandon wrote: »

If eso fails (doubt it) it will not hurt the tes franchise. Zenimax and Bethesda are 2 different companies, Bethesda has produced a lot of quality games and I really don't think one game by a different company is going to do anything.

But its all owned by the same one company, so if one branch lose a lot of monety, all the branches will be affected maybe?

Pretty sure that is not how business works, especially brands under an umbrella organisation.

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

if there are still comming single player TES games
how many warcraft games have you seen after wow ... exactly

This is not WoW or Blizzard. I'm not trying to invalidate your argument, but this old comparison is becoming so overused it is on the verge of becoming a cliché.

What is you argument, anyway?

my argument? that I fear we'll not see another single player TES soon

Yes, but thats how Bethesda works...I suppose TES VI will be out 2016/2017. Or do you mean because ESO failure?

brandon · August 2014

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

Moonglum83 wrote: »

RazielSR wrote: »

brandon wrote: »

If eso fails (doubt it) it will not hurt the tes franchise. Zenimax and Bethesda are 2 different companies, Bethesda has produced a lot of quality games and I really don't think one game by a different company is going to do anything.

But its all owned by the same one company, so if one branch lose a lot of monety, all the branches will be affected maybe?

Pretty sure that is not how business works, especially brands under an umbrella organisation.

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

if there are still comming single player TES games
how many warcraft games have you seen after wow ... exactly

This is not WoW or Blizzard. I'm not trying to invalidate your argument, but this old comparison is becoming so overused it is on the verge of becoming a cliché.

What is you argument, anyway?

my argument? that I fear we'll not see another single player TES soon

Bethesda will not just stop making tes games. I can almost guarantee you that they are working on it. I predict that it will be announced it 2015 or 2016. Bethesda has pretty much done tes games every 4 years and it's already almost time for the next one.

PS I can't believe how long its been since Skyrim.

KhajitFurTrader · August 2014

Oh, how easy it is to forget that Bethesda Game Studios is perfectly capable of shooting itself in the foot by releasing initially bug-riddled products that are neigh unusable due to a badly implemented console UI on PCs. Nope, they don't need ZeniMax Online Studios in any way to do just that. :P

raglau · August 2014

KhajitFurTrader wrote: »

Oh, how easy it is to forget that Bethesda Game Studios is perfectly capable of shooting itself in the foot by releasing initially bug-riddled products that are neigh unusable due to a badly implemented console UI on PCs. Nope, they don't need ZeniMax Online Studios in any way to do just that. :P

Ha! You are completely right, we forget that every single player TES game has been a bug-strewn mess upon release, and yes, the last two were clearly console focussed. But we still loved them dearly and they went on to ever-increasing levels of success.

Zarman · August 2014

Call of duty brings out steaming piles of Manure year after year, people still buy it again and again.

No matter how poor ESO might end up, people will still buy the next numbered game.

Moonglum83 · August 2014

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

Moonglum83 wrote: »

RazielSR wrote: »

brandon wrote: »

If eso fails (doubt it) it will not hurt the tes franchise. Zenimax and Bethesda are 2 different companies, Bethesda has produced a lot of quality games and I really don't think one game by a different company is going to do anything.

But its all owned by the same one company, so if one branch lose a lot of monety, all the branches will be affected maybe?

Pretty sure that is not how business works, especially brands under an umbrella organisation.

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

if there are still comming single player TES games
how many warcraft games have you seen after wow ... exactly

This is not WoW or Blizzard. I'm not trying to invalidate your argument, but this old comparison is becoming so overused it is on the verge of becoming a cliché.

What is you argument, anyway?

my argument? that I fear we'll not see another single player TES soon

That is a statement/personal opinion, not an argument. Why do you think this? Does it have any basis? Do you have any proof related to a similar product with a similar history?

And please don't use the WoW/Blizzard excuse. All Warcraft games to date are in chronological order, meaning that if they were to release another single player Warcraft game, it would either be set WAY in the future or WAY in the past - neither of which would be plausible, because spoilers y'know.

Why do you think SWTOR and ESO are set a thousands years before the movies/original titles?

Csub · August 2014

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

if there are still comming single player TES games
how many warcraft games have you seen after wow ... exactly

We still have BioWare games after SWTOR.

bertenburnyb16_ESO · August 2014

well its just my opinion, besides first will come Fallout4 prob before a next single player TES will come
reason why I think we wont see new TES games, is as long as ESO is running, why would they make a new TES game, it would just draw people away from ESO, if they want to keep ESO profitable and alive as long as possible it would be shooting themsleves in the foot releasing another TES game

raglau · August 2014

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

well its just my opinion, besides first will come Fallout4 prob before a next single player TES will come
reason why I think we wont see new TES games, is as long as ESO is running, why would they make a new TES game, it would just draw people away from ESO, if they want to keep ESO profitable and alive as long as possible it would be shooting themsleves in the foot releasing another TES game

It's a valid point and it makes business sense to do Fallout 4 first, for the reasons you state. In fact your argument is entirely logical re not causing ESO to compete with TES.

But overall, the OP's concern is not valid. TES will live on regardless of ESO's outcome. Bethesda have very carefully built a lucrative brand for TES and whatever happens in the ESO off-shoot, they will continue to make games under that brand until they are no longer making money.

bertenburnyb16_ESO · August 2014

squicker wrote: »

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

well its just my opinion, besides first will come Fallout4 prob before a next single player TES will come
reason why I think we wont see new TES games, is as long as ESO is running, why would they make a new TES game, it would just draw people away from ESO, if they want to keep ESO profitable and alive as long as possible it would be shooting themsleves in the foot releasing another TES game

It's a valid point and it makes business sense to do Fallout 4 first, for the reasons you state. In fact your argument is entirely logical re not causing ESO to compete with TES.

But overall, the OP's concern is not valid. TES will live on regardless of ESO's outcome. Bethesda have very carefully built a lucrative brand for TES and whatever happens in the ESO off-shoot, they will continue to make games under that brand until they are no longer making money.

yes I agree with that, if eso succeeds or fails, afterwards TES series will continue, its just that as long as eso is running, new content comming out for it and such, I dont see em making another TES game

Unmai · August 2014

@brandon Call of Duty would be another example. Hating by so many as just twitch reflex fodder but continues to be a huge success with new -releases- re-imaginings each year.

raglau · August 2014

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

squicker wrote: »

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

well its just my opinion, besides first will come Fallout4 prob before a next single player TES will come
reason why I think we wont see new TES games, is as long as ESO is running, why would they make a new TES game, it would just draw people away from ESO, if they want to keep ESO profitable and alive as long as possible it would be shooting themsleves in the foot releasing another TES game

It's a valid point and it makes business sense to do Fallout 4 first, for the reasons you state. In fact your argument is entirely logical re not causing ESO to compete with TES.

But overall, the OP's concern is not valid. TES will live on regardless of ESO's outcome. Bethesda have very carefully built a lucrative brand for TES and whatever happens in the ESO off-shoot, they will continue to make games under that brand until they are no longer making money.

yes I agree with that, if eso succeeds or fails, afterwards TES series will continue, its just that as long as eso is running, new content comming out for it and such, I dont see em making another TES game

However, we might say they are two distinct markets. For example, I am the only one out of all my gaming friends who is now playing ESO. This is not because ESO was not liked by my gaming friends (who near universally loved Skyrim) it's because we're a bit older and have families etc. The comment I hear from my friends is, "I don't have time to commit to an MMO fully and if I am paying a sub for it I need to feel I am getting my monies worth from the game (playing regularly)". I am a different case in that I run my own business and don't need to be sat at a desk 9-5, in fact I work only 2-3 days a week full-time, so I get a lot of hobby time.

This factor above means there's something like a 10:1 ratio of Skyrim to ESO players in my gaming group alone. These people ARE playing F2P MMOs like Rift however. So these people will definitely buy a single player one-off payment game like Skyrim, but they shirk at an ongoing commitment through a fear of not getting the value from it.

I don't think my friends and I are a special case, therefore a single player TES game can be released alongside ESO to capture the market I am talking about above, which in our case is the far larger market. In the case I am talking about, such a single player TES release would not take from the ESO playerbase, but merely supplement it.

Phantax · August 2014

Nah... Bethesda know their [snip] and despite what ESO does it won't affect TES. Depending how Zenimax go about the next few months though, the next TES game could very well affect ESO ! ! !

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Cursing & Profanity]

fromtesonlineb16_ESO · August 2014

EinionYrth wrote: »

Two different, incorrect spellings of "Bethesda" in one post. Impressive...

Total lack of anything useful to say. Impressive...

As for the OP, I agree with @Mightylink, in fact playing ESO already drove me back to re-play Morrowind in search of a decent TES game.

AoEnwyr · August 2014

Well a crappy start to FFXIV didn't damage sales of the single player game. I think there are slightly different player bases involved as well

vyndral13preub18_ESO · August 2014

UlanX wrote: »

Well a crappy start to FFXIV didn't damage sales of the single player game. I think there are slightly different player bases involved as well

A series i had forgotten about. And they even made more single player ff games while their MMOs were running.

AngryNord · August 2014

UlanX wrote: »

Well a crappy start to FFXIV didn't damage sales of the single player game. I think there are slightly different player bases involved as well

"Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada admitted in a September 2011 press conference that "the Final Fantasy brand [had been] been greatly damaged" as a result of the game's shortcomings.[59][60]"

(link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIV - last sentence)

Ser Lobo · August 2014

I honestly feel that what's going to hurt the next Elder Scrolls game, is ESO and it's larger, grander vision.

I predict that when this new epic single-player game comes out in a few more years, it's going to have evolved just a little more, and many players will be upset that ESO does more. Because by the time that game is released, ESO will have had several strong years of active content upgrades and featured development.

If the next Elder Scrolls game follows the trend of those before it, it'll have better graphics, but a smaller world and simpler mechanics. It'll be narrower in scope, beautifully focusing on only one small section of Tamriel. It'll make the character feel more powerful, but in the same breath, will be limited to single-player content, probably lacking even the most basic co-op experience.

It'll have, at most, one year worth of active content upgrades, all limited behind pay walls and possibly even exclusivity agreements. It'll be entirely buggy and most likely broken for the majority of users, until players themselves get out and design fixes for what Bethesda can't seem to do right.

And, it'll be easy. Each generation of game has gotten easier, to make the player feel more powerful. ESO has followed this suite a bit, but I predict the next TES game will be even more so.

There is so much expectation and anticipation riding on the next TES game, but those of us who are veterans of the series know just how much further downhill each game has traveled from the one prior. I really enjoyed Skyrim, but all ESO has done for me is pointed out all the things I am missing when I replay those single-player game.

The mod community, of which I'm a proud member, is really the only thing that makes the single-player games still worth it. That's NOT the best advertisement argument.

zaria · August 2014

squicker wrote: »

bertenburnyb16_ESO wrote: »

well its just my opinion, besides first will come Fallout4 prob before a next single player TES will come
reason why I think we wont see new TES games, is as long as ESO is running, why would they make a new TES game, it would just draw people away from ESO, if they want to keep ESO profitable and alive as long as possible it would be shooting themsleves in the foot releasing another TES game

It's a valid point and it makes business sense to do Fallout 4 first, for the reasons you state. In fact your argument is entirely logical re not causing ESO to compete with TES.

But overall, the OP's concern is not valid. TES will live on regardless of ESO's outcome. Bethesda have very carefully built a lucrative brand for TES and whatever happens in the ESO off-shoot, they will continue to make games under that brand until they are no longer making money.

Everybody expect Fallout 4 as the next Bethesda game however it takes a long time and I'm not sure however they are probably rewriting the engine for next gen consoles.

See no reason why not release an new TES game, yes it will get some players to cancel however majority of them would be bored and might jump in any direction anyway. TES 6 will not come for years so the ones who plays ESO then is in for the community anyway.