I feel like Skyrim will be the last stand alone single player only TES game. In an era with an increasing amount of multiplayer games, I feel like the next TES game will fall prey to this as well. No one thought the Dragon Age series would have multiplayer but now DA3 will feature it.
As bad as it may sound, I feel multiplayer wouldn't be so bad as everyone thinks.
Instead of these useless NPC characters that assist you you could have your online friend adventure along with you in a huge world.
Imagine being able to create your own shops in the game where you can set your own prices and all other players will be able to purchase from.
Co-op in dungeons and such would be incredibly fun.
Multiplayer doesn't mean the single player would have to suffer.

Bethesda aren't retards, so they won't attempt to implement multiplayer.

If I'm wrong, I'll eat a pine cone on livestream as punishment when it's announced to have multiplayer.

And like death and taxes, I look forward to it about the same.

"You can never say never to anything like that, but it's not what our focus is. This type of game is where our hearts are, what we get excited about, and that's what we want to focus on. We don't want to lose that focus and we never want to sacrifice anything in the singleplayer game just to have it be multiplayer."
-Todd Howard

I was gonna post the article this came from (or similar) but Luke just spoke a thousand words here.

/thread

A agree to an extent. Turning TES into WoW would be a HUGE mistake. BUT, allowing for cooperative play P2P (i.e., no server-side game worlds that any can join) would work for those who would use it. Is it inevitable, though? Hardly. Sales of this SP only game more than tell what fans of TES are looking for.

LOL, no.

They've stated over the years NUMEROUS times that they do not ever plan on making TES a multiplayer game. It's just not how they see the series.

So no, TES:VI will NOT have Multiplayer.

Actually, it's my belief as a programmer that this will never happen unless they adopt a vastly different less interactive game design...which i doubt they would ever do. Else they have to make all of the environment static and non-interactive with objects only being able to be manipulated into and out of containers. Or, they can make stuff break in heavily defined wayss.

Go into say...an alchemy shop, and cast Blizzard. Now, even as a non-programmer imagine what data has to be calculated and sent between clients. Ok, lets forget about all the world objects. How about all the NPCs doing their thing everywhere. Yeah...not gonna happen.

I think if anything they'll make it Co-op system link / split screen before taking TES online.

Their stories are based around a single 'unamed hero' coming along and saving the world (if they choose too). Multiplayer online just wouldn't work lore wise. As for co-op, I don't know how that would work either exactly. Maybe the 2nd player could control a follower or something.

There is a separate studio that is working on multiplayer. Whether that game will be in the ES world no one except those devs knows. But they've been fairly clear that Bethesda's ES games will continue to be single player.

if they ever dare add mp then i am done with the Elder Scrolls.

The next TES game will have a new engine obviously due to being on next gen consoles, PS4 and X720.

This

Also an MMO would be even worse than multiplayer and that's saying something. I hope they keep TES brand far from multiplayer and MMOs.

Agreed... Hopefully the commercial success of Skyrim will convince some game developers that not ALL games need multiplayer.

YUP! Personally, I'm not the least bit interested in MP gaming. In fact, in the games I play, the worst are those that have implented MP into them. Brink was a total waste of time, as are so many others, IF you're only looking for an SP play through.

When beth stops making money on TES as it is now they will go a online direction but till then sit tight or find a different series to play if your looking for online anything.

No, aside from Bethesda's statements which have explicitly said it will likely never happen...

It doesn't work in TES, the game is not built for more than the single player experience.

If you want multi or co-op play, just read the forums and then imagine that in the game world.

Random People's online comments/actions

"Dude, didn't you think X quest was screwed up when Y died or destoyed Z?"
"Bro, I need some septims... lets go camp A for expensive item B."
"lulzor nub I just totally killed your horse"
"MOM I NEED MOAR HOTPOCKETS!"
"Why's that giant dragon following that guy? Oh @#$%!!!!" /kitedeath

Me

"SON OF A #@#$, see this is why it should have stayed single player..."

I'm sure you can imagine plenty of other situations.

The game literally has to be dumbed down to the level of fable to support MP natively; is that what you want?

So long as it doesn't interfere with their ability to keep the single player portion of the game solid then I have no problems with multiplayer being added. My gut feeling though is that the technology just wouldn't allow it to happen, not without removing the seamless open world aspects of the game and adding in zoning, otherwise you would need some pretty powerful servers to host multiplayer games.

No it's not inevitable, The Elder Scrolls is a single player series, and Bethesda aren't about to add multiplayer just because everyone else seems to these days.

i hate how people think multiplayer should be implemented into EVERY single game.

While some multiplayer games have made a lot of money, not every multiplayer game has. Same can be said for single player games. But what can be said is that there's a market for both. Fallout 3, Rage, and Skyrim are all SP games (with a MP sidegame for Rage) and seem to be what Beth is focusing on. I don't see them killing their cash cow. While they might publish a MP game in TES lore, it will be a small part of the story being told by the SP games.

technology isn't an issue anymore, especially at the level Skyrim is currently. Now such isn't possible on current gen it is much to limited the past BGS's maps are not very big they are smaller then Farcry 3 and even the same size almost of GTA SA which already has online play let alone some of the MMO's game sizes that near or even past daggerfall size. Seperate cells wouldn't be an issue games such as Lotro have similar cell work you enter a door you enter a new cell for every room with a door almost.

i think multiplayer to some extent would be good as in an arena where you can fight other players and have scoreboards and stuff like that but turning the game into a full-on multiplayer game is just wrong. trust me i know what's good for this series and multiplayer just isnt it.

I'm holding you to that