Talk:The Elder Scrolls/Dumping ground
 | This is not a Wikipedia article: This is a workpage, a collection of material and work in progress that may or may not be incorporated into an article. It should not necessarily be considered factual or authoritative. |
History
[edit]The development of the series began in 1992, when the staff of Bethesda Softworks, which had until then been a predominantly sports game-producing company, decided to shift the focus of their upcoming Arena from arena combat into role-playing. The team, inspired by Ultima Underworld and Dungeons & Dragons, released the massive and open first-person RPG The Elder Scrolls: Arena in 1994 for DOS PC systems. The game began a tradition of games based on the principles of "[being] who you want and [doing] what you want"[1] that have persisted throughout the series' history.
The next Elder Scrolls series game — The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall — was published in 1996. Fueled by the modest success of Arena, Daggerfall was even more ambitious than its predecessor. Daggerfall attempted to create a game world twice the size of Great Britain, rendered in a truly 3D engine, and build a skill-system that revolved around skill building rather than experience gains. Daggerfall suffered from that very ambition: rushed to publication, the game was deemed "tortuously buggy" by one commentator. Despite Daggerfall's commercial success, "the game still bears the mark of bad code." [2]
Following Daggerfall's release, Bethesda ceased any development on any numbered series title until 1998, developing in the interim The Elder Scrolls Legends: Battlespire, released in 1997, and The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, released in 1998. Both games had a smaller focus than the numbered series titles: Battlespire was a linear action RPG; Redguard was a slightly less linear third-person action-adventure game. The games sold poorly, and Bethesda flirted with bankruptcy. Only with the cash influx brought by Bethesda's acquisition by the well-funded ZeniMax Media in 1999, did Bethesda return to the fore.
With The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Bethesda tripled their staff and pushed again towards hardware-intensive gaming. Morrowind saw a return to the old-style expansive and non-linear gameplay, but also a shift towards individually detailed landscapes and items, and a smaller game-world than past titles. Morrowind was released on both the Xbox and the PC, and saw popular and critical success on both, selling upwards of 4 million units by mid 2005. Two expansions were quickly released for Morrowind between late 2002 and early 2003: The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal, and The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon.
Work began on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in 2002, immediately after Morrowind's publication. Oblivion focused on providing improved AI interacting dynamically with the gameworld, courtesy of Bethesda's proprietary Radiant AI; physics, courtesy of the Havok engine; and impressive graphics. The game was released, following much press coverage, on the PC and Xbox 360 in early 2006, and the PlayStation 3 in early 2007. Bethesda released one content collection and one expansion pack for Oblivion in late 2006 and early 2007: The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine and The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles.
In late October 2008, shortly after the release of Fallout 3, Bethesda's Publishing Executive, Paul Oughton, indicated that the series' fifth installment could be released in 2010.[3] ZeniMax Media, the owner of Bethesda Softworks, had trademarked the name "Skyrim" in 2006,[4] but its relation to the fifth installment of the series is uncertain. At QuakeCon 2009, Todd Howard was asked about a fifth game, he replied that while the series will continue, "don't look for a new Elder Scrolls game in the near future."[5]
References
[edit]- ^ "Arena - Behind the Scenes". The Elder Scrolls 10th Anniversary. Bethesda Softworks. 2004. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
- ^ Blancato, Joe (2007-02-06). "Bethesda: The Right Direction". The Escapist. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
- ^ Martin, Matt (2008-10-29). "Bethesda pencils in new Elder Scrolls title for 2010". GameIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
- ^ United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Serial Number: 77044247.
- ^ Dobra, Andrei (2009-08-18). "Bethesda Says It Will Continue to Develop The Elder Scrolls Franchise". Softpedia. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
Alternative Timeline
[edit]Elder Scrolls release timeline | ||
1992 — – 1994 — – 1996 — – 1998 — – 2000 — – 2002 — – 2004 — – 2006 — – | ||
The Elder Scrolls release timeline (Old timeline)
[edit]- 1994 - The Elder Scrolls: Arena – MS-DOS
- 1996 - The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall – MS-DOS
- 1997 - An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire – MS-DOS
- 1998 - The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard – MS-DOS
- 2002 - The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind – Windows, Xbox
- 2002 - The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal – Windows, Xbox (as part of the Game of the Year Edition only)
- 2003 - The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon – Windows, Xbox (as part of the Game of the Year Edition only)
- 2003 - The Elder Scrolls Travels: Stormhold – Java-enabled mobile phones
- 2004 - The Elder Scrolls Travels: Dawnstar – Java-enabled mobile phones
- 2004 - The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey – N-Gage
- 2006 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
- 2006 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine – Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
- 2007 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles – Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3