The Elder Scrolls franchise has always grown in popularity with each release, but Skyrim is finally the game that broke into the mainstream, becoming the second highest selling game of the year, winning the top prize at the VGA's, and overall a bigger success than Bethesda likely ever imagined.

Does this mean the next game will be far bigger and more advanced, now that Bethesda has the resources to make that happen? As we've seen with franchises like Call of Duty, developers can take the opposite route, and just churn out the same title every year with no incremental upgrades. What do you guys think about the future of the franchise, in light of Skyrim's breakout success?

Lol no. Oblivion and Morrowind broke into the mainstream. Morrowind stepped into it and Oblivion really stepped out into the mainstream.

But of course, Bethesda is one of the few companies that don't just remake the same garbage year after year.

Well, at least they can't simply say "MUTIPLAYARR DURR" and not add a whole new main quest, guilds, side quests, cities... and another province. I mean, If I could have another game like Skyrim in a different province and the same lifespan and number of quests, I'd be really happy. Given how much It takes to develope such a game, I guess we'll see many changes, like we've had till now.

I`m always suspicious of such high claims. It makes it sound like Fallout 3 and Oblivion were failures. Neither would I say Skyrim is mainstream. a whole lot of people still hate anything that resembles an rpg. i`m pretty sure a lot of Battlefield 3 people and COD won`t touch this with a barge pole and they`re pretty popular.

I am glad they`re doing ok. Just wish they made Steam OPTIONAL, that`s all.

Depends how powerful the new consoles are.

I'm not counting Fallout since it's a different franchise. A lot of people probably bought Fallout over Oblivion just because of the cool guy on the box, and the fact that it has laser guns and such.

When I say Skyrim broke into the mainstream, I mean tons and tons of people who never play RPG's are playing this game. Oblivion was popular, but Skyrim has already surpassed it in popularity after a month and a half of release. I think it's pretty amazing that a fantasy game, which would normally be considered nerdy, not only outsold Fallout 3, which is much more appealing to people who play shooters, but also outsold Battlefield 3, a game that marketed itself furiously and is a perfect vehicle for the CoD gamer.

All I can say is hopefully I hope they add more to the game and give us more depth.
That would be better for everyone.
A bigger setting.
Overall more content.
Whats not to love right there.

More is always good, but things usually take time.

I agree. We can only speculate on what will happen until the new console technology is released.

If they were smart, they'd open up two development teams... one team that develops TES titles and one for the Fallout series. This is because I find that waiting 4-7 years in-between TES titles is quite annoying.

I'm hoping that the success of Skyrim will lead to an even more popular and sophisticated TES VI.

Also hoping that Bethesda will listen to constructive criticism of Skyrim and improve further in TES VI -- for example improved storylines.

In a way they have that. The concept teams and the people actually building quests and the world are usually working on different games at different times. They said that they were doing concept stuff on Skyrim while they were finishing FO:3.

Yes, more is always good for sure.
I know these things take time.
We are along way from TES VI.

I can only hope that they fix this game, from all of its bugs.
Then I hope they start adding in new content.
We can only wait and see.

It will get worse because they want to stay mainstream now. Don't expect spell making to make a return, or journal entries either. The road ahead is painted with colorful arrows pointing toward the direction you should be walking, with electrified guard rails and sharpshooters making sure you don't step out of line.

That, and once the franchise really steps out and into the spotlight, Bethesda won't be able to get away with releasing such bug riddled games, so expect less content or longer development cycles.

They ignored much of the criticism offered with Oblivion, which ignored much of the success with Morrowind, which was completely different than Daggerfall, so don't expect much improvement.

This is something they need to do for sure.

I want more of my Elder Scrolls.

they would need to be pretty powerful, whats the point of makinga new console, when the recent one has already went through massive software upgrades and hardware optimizations. You hvave to remember the ps3 and the 360 were way better than any pc back then, and now they are way behind, so use that as a point of reference.

becuase the new consoles will be coming out before the next ES it will probably be less content and the performance will be worse than Skyrim because they will have to reprogram the engine to run on the new consoles

Wow, you think the game is worse because of two minor things? Wow.....plus, why would they want to release the SAME game over and over? When that is what everyone [censored]es and complains about in COD games, kept what was good, and added a tiny bit in, instead of really innovating, jesus, the ignorance is ridiculous!

The new consoles are going to be using flash drives so i highly doubt that they will be using less content. As for performance, this game plays EONS better than oblivions ultra lag fest.

That's just not true. The PS3 was one of the first things with a BD Drive but many of the other components available in 2003 when the first 360 came out was much more powerful and capable.

I am not talking about disc space I am talking about them coding the actual game they will not be familiar with it, look what happened with Oblivion that was designed primarily for the PC, but because of the new consoles content had be cut and that is why we had the minimally used radient AI and no shadows

I could list everything, but I'd rather not waste my time. Either you agree with my comment or you don't, so there's no reason to bother.

No, I don't want the same game. I do want the same successful features though. i also want a compelling storyline, and more options to choose from. I do NOT want Bethesda to remove old features simply so they can add new, experimental ones. I'd rather they improve upon the old instead, and add new if they've got the time.

They just keep revamping their games and hoping to grab as much attention as possible from the mainstream, sacrificing everything and anything that could get in the way of that. That's what I don't want.

obivion wasnt very compelling to a lot of people, so what were they supposed to do? They cant please everyone.

thats why the games are developed for consoles now, so they can be touched up for pc much more easily.

The ES has been popular since Morrowind. The fan base was huge thanks to Obivlion and Fallout 3. That's why Skyrim sold a lot. I still wouldn't call it a mainstream game however because a lot of people still see it as a boring geek rpg.

I remember when the 360 came out, looking at the specs, thinking how underpowered the components were, then remembering that a brand new console is half the price of a budget pc, and that microsoft isn't going to subsidize a $1000 -$2000, even if they're willing to sell at a loss.
I don't know, maybe they were comparable to a budget build, and they got hyped like a high end system, but the specs weren't anything to brag about by a long shot.