Bethesda Says Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Not an MMO

Bethesda Says 'Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim' is Not an MMO

Bethesda has apparently confirmed that Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is not an MMO, saying that ZeniMax Online's MMO project should not be confused as their own.

Game Rant gave its best shot at exploring the idea of an Elder Scrolls MMO, even considering the fact that Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim could potentially be online. Such a scenarios was certainly very unlikely, especially considering how frustrated fans were at the idea. Just to make sure, VGRevolution sent Bethesda an email asking for some perspective. In good for, they presented a straight up, "No," rather than the typical, "No comment on rumors or speculation."

Here's Bethesda's response to the idea that Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim could potentially be an MMO:

"It is not an MMO. We have an MMO studio, ZeniMax Online, but they have not announced what they are working on. Just rumors and speculation.You'll have to wait for any other details on Skyrim. Game Informer has the cover story next month. Stay tuned."

This news is certain to set many Elder Scrolls fans' minds at ease. Fans are almost unanimous in their hope for another single player only Elder Scrolls game, though this seems more due to the fact that the other games in the series are just so good the way they are, rather than thoughts that an MMO would be bad. On the other hand, co-op was a much more accepted idea.

Being skeptical about cooperative play or any other sort of multiplayer of any kind is very understandable. If any system in Oblivion needed improvement it was the combat, which was quite simple for a single player game, let alone two players or full parties of players. Should ZeniMax Online's MMO be set in the universe of Elder Scrolls, showing how the gameplay has evolved from Oblivion into Skyrim should set expectations nicely.

Unfortunately, it looks like further speculation will have to wait until Game Informer's exclusive Elder Scrolls V cover story next month. Game Rant will be waiting for it with bated breath. What are your thoughts on Elder Scrolls V, Ranters? What would you like to see improve from Oblivion? Is this game seriously almost a year away? Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is due for release November 11, 2011.

i never heard it was supposed to be an mmo, oh well good to recomfirm it i guess

After the announcment of Skyrim I don't think anyone thought it was going to be an MMO. What's the point in asking when everybody and their dog already knows the answer? Way to waste your time VGRevolution....

Thank you!!!

I kept hearing people talk about this and the possibility scared me.

Well... duh. It would be called "The Elder Scrolls MMO" and not be the direct sequel to Oblivion if it were an MMO.

That said, I am going to be disappointed if they announce any multiplayer aspects. I don't want to miss out on features of a game because I don't have my platform hooked up to the internet, or don't enjoy going online to play with people I don't know or don't care to know.

They need to concentrate on making up for all the mistakes they made in Oblivion, and not depend on the mod community to make their game what it should have been.

this is good news indeed

so...we know the province, release date, what engine it wont have, and what genre it wont be. bethesda is really opening up the floodgates on this one. LoG-Sacrament

Good

because WoW would just destroy it

Must resist, but I cant - Yay.

That`s really good news , now they only need to fix the writing , voices , animation, combat, the engine... :)

Just kidding - Skyrim, snow and lots of snow would be great after so much green in Oblivion.

BTW, MMOs don't work on Xbox, commercially or with regards to the network structure. The update authentication on XBL is too rigid and so is the pricing structure and content delivery. .Brownesque

PSU Shuts down on everything but 360

Kinda weird, don't you think?

[QUOTE="Brownesque"]BTW, MMOs don't work on Xbox, commercially or with regards to the network structure. The update authentication on XBL is too rigid and so is the pricing structure and content delivery. .waltefmoney

PSU Shuts down on everything but 360

Kinda weird, don't you think?

[QUOTE="waltefmoney"]

[QUOTE="Brownesque"]BTW, MMOs don't work on Xbox, commercially or with regards to the network structure. The update authentication on XBL is too rigid and so is the pricing structure and content delivery. .Arach666

PSU Shuts down on everything but 360

Kinda weird, don't you think?

Even if it does not qualify as one, it still works as an MMO(the network mode), and receives updates, which goes against what he's saying.

[QUOTE="Brownesque"]BTW, MMOs don't work on Xbox, commercially or with regards to the network structure. The update authentication on XBL is too rigid and so is the pricing structure and content delivery. .waltefmoney

PSU Shuts down on everything but 360

Kinda weird, don't you think?

[QUOTE="waltefmoney"]

[QUOTE="Brownesque"]BTW, MMOs don't work on Xbox, commercially or with regards to the network structure. The update authentication on XBL is too rigid and so is the pricing structure and content delivery. .Brownesque

PSU Shuts down on everything but 360

Kinda weird, don't you think?

And yet here is a game that works like an MMO, using the Xbox Live network structure, with constant updates. And here is another one.

[QUOTE="Arach666"][QUOTE="waltefmoney"]

PSU Shuts down on everything but 360

Kinda weird, don't you think?

AncientDozer

I wasn´t trying to debate anything,but I know the PS Online series and there´s nothing "massive" about those games.

Imean,sure,it´s bigger than PSO(wich had the small hub area and four instances where you could go with three other people,and that´s it)but not at the scale of an actual MMO.

Same could be said about Guild Wars.

Anyway, Brownesqque, I disagree with you again. How strange. Co-op would hardly be disastrous or impossible for their style. Think about it. Every aspect of the game is open and vague. This is done for a very specific reason and that is because the player character is literally free to be anything. Any gender, any race, any class. Hell, you can make your own classes and even then you don't have to stick with it. That's a lot of variations/game the game has to react to. There is plenty of room to work with. The difference? "Hero of Kvatch" to "Heroes of Kvatch". "Ashley did such and such" in your diary to "Ashley and Bob did such and such". Encounters and dungeons and weapons don't have to be changed in this game for that second player and there's already a crude scaling system that, with refinement, could make encounters more difficult if anyone really feels they need to be.AncientDozer

Yes, I think they could scale challenges and quests to accomodate multiple players.

Minor problems could come up with regards to factions and reputation, but

generally you could, I guess, wander around a Dwemer ruins with your wood elf friend, who could briefly log in to wander through the wilderness with you before leaving your network game to grind out some Running skill.

When I said "disastrous," I did not mean so much game breaking as I meant pointless and boring. But, really, this is splitting hairs.

[QUOTE="Brownesque"][QUOTE="waltefmoney"]

PSU Shuts down on everything but 360

Kinda weird, don't you think?

waltefmoney

And yet here is a game that works like an MMO, using the Xbox Live network structure, with constant updates. And here is another one.

FFXI seems to have a global subscription base of half a million currently with a peak several years ago of about 2 million. I couldn't find figures on subscription by platform, but it seems to me that the peak on Xbox Live out of the 3 platforms could be between a current subscription base of a few hundred thousand with a peak of perhaps a million subscribers. Those numbers aren't bad, but they aren't impressive, particularly not for such a large franchises debut on 3 platforms.

http://www.brighthub.com/video-games/mmo/articles/35992.aspx

Granted, many other PC MMOs are miserable failures, but this should highlight another point, which is that MMOs in general have a sketchy success rate in light of WoW's dominance.

http://www.1up.com/news/final-fantasy-xiv-xbox-paused

The XBox 360 version of FFIX has been "paused," while the PC version has been released and the release of the PS3 version is TBA.

"Speaking to VG247, producer Hiromichi Tanaka said that Square-Enix hasn't given up yet. "We're still talking with Microsoft at the moment so there is no update as to when we'll start again," he said. Tanaka reiterated that Microsoft's strict Xbox Live policies are still the main point of contention. But when pressed on whether the game was canceled, he claimed it is merely paused."

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101640-Final-Fantasy-XIV-Not-Coming-to-360s-Because-of-Xbox-Live

"The main reason why we couldn't go with Xbox 360 was the Xbox Live system," he stated. "{Live is} different to the normal internet environment, so when we wanted to introduce this game in the same environment as Windows PC it had to be PS3, so that was our choice.

"Microsoft has a different point of view: they want to have a closed environment for Xbox Live. We're still talking to ... We couldn't come to an agreement on Xbox Live."

An Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIV was considered, being announced to be in talks with Microsoft to bring the game to the system. However, in an interview with Eurogamer, Tanaka stated that, "The main reason why we couldn't go with Xbox 360 was the Xbox Live system. {Live is} different to the normal internet environment, so when we wanted to introduce this game in the same environment as Windows PC it had to be PS3, so that was our choice. Microsoft has a different point of view: they want to have a closed environment for Xbox Live. We're still talking to... We couldn't come to an agreement on Xbox Live." FFXI was only allowed by Square Enix onto Xbox Live as it only required a Silver Xbox Live membership, therefore was not considered closed as did not require any additional fees to play. Tanaka has recently reaffirmed that development on the Xbox 360 is considered "on hold" and that there are "no plans" to continue development unless the situation with Microsoft and Xbox Live changes

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/finalfantasy11/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary%3Bread-review

"While this online role-playing game may have been a hit for the PC and PlayStation 2, it feels very awkward and entirely out of place on the Xbox 360."

"As if to force you to change jobs often, the game limits you to just one character slot, unless you pay extra on top of an already fairly steep monthly fee. Considering you're probably already paying for an Xbox Live Gold account, the need to pay a monthly fee is a considerable disincentive."

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/phantasystariv/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary%3Bread-review

"On the Xbox 360, the first two or three servers seem to remain fairly populated, but the rest are absolute ghost towns. Also, you really don't get the impression that a lot of people are playing the game online. But the common areas are really only there for commerce and grouping purposes. Up to six players can be in a party, and once you start a mission, you'll never see anyone outside of your party until the mission is complete and you head back to a common area. So don't mistake this for a massively multiplayer game. It most definitely isn't one. That sort of makes the game's monthly fee a little hard to swallow, especially when consider that other games of the same type don't require a fee. On top of all that, the game doesn't even give you a 30-day trial to decide if it's your thing or not. That's pretty weak."

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105915-Blizzard-Wont-Make-Xbox-MMO-until-Its-Sure-Live-Can-Take-It

"Microsoft puts limits on how many free updates developers can put out for their games, which would present significant difficulties for Blizzard when it came to adding new content. Blizzard's Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street said that the developer would need assurances from Microsoft that Live would be able to handle the demands of an MMO before it would even think about starting development."

The structure of Xbox Live is something that multiple developers have decried. Square Enix made it very clear that the reason that Final Fantasy XIV wasn't coming to the Xbox 360 was because of Live, and Valve described the rules as a "train wreck," and assumed they would have to be change because of how broken they were."

FFXI seems to have a global subscription base of half a million currently with a peak several years ago of about 2 million. I couldn't find figures on subscription by platform, but it seems to me that the peak on Xbox Live out of the 3 platforms could be between a current subscription base of a few hundred thousand with a peak of perhaps a million subscribers. Those numbers aren't bad, but they aren't impressive, particularly not for such a large franchises debut on 3 platforms.

Brownesque

BTW, MMOs don't work on Xbox, commercially or with regards to the network structure.Brownesque

So those two games(FFXI and PSU) work both commercially and with regards to the network structure?

[QUOTE="Brownesque"]

FFXI seems to have a global subscription base of half a million currently with a peak several years ago of about 2 million. I couldn't find figures on subscription by platform, but it seems to me that the peak on Xbox Live out of the 3 platforms could be between a current subscription base of a few hundred thousand with a peak of perhaps a million subscribers. Those numbers aren't bad, but they aren't impressive, particularly not for such a large franchises debut on 3 platforms.

waltefmoney

BTW, MMOs don't work on Xbox, commercially or with regards to the network structure.Brownesque

So those two games(FFXI and PSU) work both commercially and with regards to the network structure?

Did you not read the quote I lovingly gifted you from Squeenix explaining why they didn't develop FFXIV on the platform?

FFXI was only allowed by Square Enix onto Xbox Live as it only required a Silver Xbox Live membership, therefore was not considered closed as did not require any additional fees to play. Tanaka has recently reaffirmed that development on the Xbox 360 is considered "on hold" and that there are "no plans" to continue development unless the situation with Microsoft and Xbox Live changes

It even says that they only moved FFXI to 360 because they were given a qualification they're evidently not getting now. It should be pretty obvious that if firms like Valve, Blizzard, and Squeenix can't get MS to budge on their restrictive net policies, they're restrictive to the point where any developer looking to place an independent MMO network/subscription model on the platform is going to have to spend a long time trying to shape the earth before they can even make their game. It's just straight nonsense.

I also don't even know why you responded to me. If you consider those subscription rates a success, cool. I don't. Bethsoft won't. We can play semantics games here all day, the only important thing is that it would be unbelievably stupid for Bethsoft to try making TES V into an MMO for reasons Gamespot, Blizzard, Valve, and Square Enix have already explained to you.

If by work you mean they managed to move some units and maintain a subscription base, then yeah.

Brownesque

Glad we could work this out.

[QUOTE="Brownesque"]

If by work you mean they managed to move some units and maintain a subscription base, then yeah.

waltefmoney

Glad we could work this out.

[QUOTE="waltefmoney"]

[QUOTE="Brownesque"]

If by work you mean they managed to move some units and maintain a subscription base, then yeah.

Brownesque

Glad we could work this out.

So everyone's happy.

Thank god :)

I had no reason to assume it was going to be an MMO.

[QUOTE="Brownesque"]BTW, MMOs don't work on Xbox, commercially or with regards to the network structure. The update authentication on XBL is too rigid and so is the pricing structure and content delivery. .waltefmoney

PSU Shuts down on everything but 360

Kinda weird, don't you think?

PSU isnt a true MMO from what I remember.

I really doubted it was from the trailer, but good thing it's confirmed, an ES MMO sounds like it would be a disaster.

I knew it would not be, but a nice confirmation all the same.