Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is one of the most-played open-world western RPGs ever released. This title is only topped by the likes of The Witcher 3 and Baldur’s Gate 3, yet the charm of this title stays intact. It cannot be stressed enough how wide a shadow this game must cast on its MMORPG cousin, Elder Scrolls Online.
Elder Scrolls Online was launched back in 2014 to a mixed reception from both gamers as well as critics. But most of them were still playing games like Skyrim and World of Warcraft back then; hence, it made sense for them to compare it to those games. Developers knew this would happen; hence, they had already taken measures to combat this issue.
Elder Scrolls Online developers had to redesign the whole game after Skyrim launched
Oblivion, the prequel to Skyrim, was launched back in 2006. Elder Scrolls Online started development in 2007, the same year its development studio, ZeniMax Online Studios, was founded.
While they worked on developing the online iteration of their game, Bethesda Game Studios was hard at work on Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. This game was launched in 2011, and Elder Scrolls Online was still in development at that point.
They were still picking up and throwing away a bunch of ideas. While this mix-and-match was being carried out, the developers noticed the reception Skyrim got. It was a success; it sold 3.5 million units within 48 hours of its launch. No doubt the game was heading to be a success.
With the success of Skyrim, developers at ZeniMax Online Studios were enticed. They wanted to see what people loved about it; hence, they started digging through the game and realized how different it was from its prequel, Oblivion, which had been their point of reference till that moment.
They had to take a U-turn and rethink their game. In the words of ZeniMax Online Studios’ director Matt Firor, they had to redo a lot of that game. They had to strip off some features and add others. They were step-by-step “Skyrim-ising” Elder Scrolls Online.
“It was very clear after two weeks [of Skyrim’s launch] that no one was going to play a WOW + Dark Age Of Camelot + Oblivion game. We had to totally rethink what the game was. Keep the game world and the stories and the quests [… but] making an MMO from scratch, with the team from scratch, and then following one of the best games of all time is really not for the faint of heart. Peeling back the layers and it was basically Skyrim-ising ESO.”
The result was a game that millions of people loved. Not as much as Skyrim, of course, but Elder Scrolls Online has generated its own massive community over the years.
People love that enough to encourage developers to go ahead and release a bunch of new expansions for it. Recently, the game celebrated its tenth anniversary, and the developers also launched the “Gold Road” expansion for it earlier this year.
What is Bethesda Game Studios working on?
The main studio that works on the mainline Elder Scrolls and Fallout series launched their latest game, Starfield, late last year. The game got an underwhelming reception from longtime fans, and gamers everywhere were criticizing it for a number of reasons.
Hence, they are currently working on fixing that game and maybe releasing some expansions for it. But eventually, they would start working on Elder Scrolls 6, and that’s what fans are all hyped for. No one knows when this game will launch, though.
