The long-running American RPG series finally enters the online realm in 2013! Platforms unspecified.
Elder Scrolls Online will not launch until next year, 2013, for unspecified platforms, but the game has been confirmed and you can watch the debut trailer below.
Few details are known about the game, although much more will be learned once the newest issue of Game Informer magazine hits, which got the exclusive scoop on The Elder Scrolls online. This is the first Massively Multiplayer Online game in the long-running American/Western RPG series, and the first to be set in an online world where thousands of players can explore the deep mythos of the Elder Scrolls world together simultaneously!
It has long been rumored that the Elder Scrolls games would make a great MMO, and that the mythos was rich to provide the backdrop for one. And many people rumored that an Elder Scrolls MMO may have been in the works even after the success of Morrowind. And that anticipation only grew with the exponentially more successful Oblivion and Skyrim titles. Now, finally, it will actually be a reality! Which I think comes as a big surprise to many. It’s one thing to speculate, its quite another to know that the real deal is coming!
Gamplay details on The Elder Scrolls Online are scarce, but we know that the game is set in the ENTIRE world of Tamriel, that includes the lands covered in the Morrowind, Oblivion AND Skyrim games… the lands of Cyrodiil, Morrowind and Skyrim respectively. No word if any of the lands explored in the first two games will make an appearance, but you can probably bet on it.
The Elder Scrolls Online has a plot that is set 1,000 years before the events of Skyrim, set in a world on the brink of destruction by demonic forces attempting to assimilate the world into their kind, all at the hand of the Daedric Prince known as Molag Bal.
Three playable factions will be featured in the game, although we don’t know what they are yet or if there will be more. There is a rumor circulating that these will include a unspecified “Bird of Prey” race, a lion race and a dragon race. This by the same reporter of the rumor that The Elder Scrolls Online existed and would soon be announced (which has now been confirmed to have been true), so take that as you will. We’ll find out soon.
The Elder Scrolls Online will be the debut title from a new developer founded five years ago by Matt Firor, the co-founder of Mythic Entertainment (Dark Age of Camelot), he is head Game Director on The Elder Scrolls Online with his “Zenimax Online Studios”. Given how important this license is to Zenimax (the owners of Bethesda), you can be SURE AS HELL that they will do everything in their power to ensure The Elder Scrolls Online lives up to the Elder Scrolls name.
Here is the debut trailer for The Elder Scrolls Online.
It’s interesting that the Elder Scrolls Online MMO got off the ground before a Fallout MMO ever materialized. Many people thought that a Fallout MMO was inevitable, in particular because Interplay was once working on one (before Bethesda won the rights following a long, expensive and bruising court battle) and once Bethesda got ahold of the license, many fans thought a Fallout MMO would be next-in-line for the studio…. Looks like The Elder Scrolls will get the first crack at the online space however. And Zenimax will sure as hell have their hands full with such an epic transition to the world of online! I’m sure that the skyrocketing sales of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is what convinced Bethesda, once and for all, that it was The Elder Scrolls that needed to go online with an MMO, and NOT the Fallout license. Although Bethesda’s Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas sold extremely well, they can not TOUCH the insane sales of Skyrim, a game that sold an astounding $3.4 million copies in TWO DAYS across Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Think about that for a minute. And that’s at $60 for a regular copy, or a whopping $150 for the Skyrim Collector’s Edition…. :O *the mind wobbles*
Of course, it’s also likely that The Elder Scrolls Online was in development even BEFORE Skyrim… who knows, especially considering that fans have speculated about The Elder Scrolls MMO for a long time now, and considering Zenimax Online Studios was founded way back in 2007. It’s highly plausible that the game has been in development for years, and we are just now hearing about.
The Electronic Entertainment Exposition 2012, E3 2012, the world’s biggest videogame tradeshow (held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California), is only ONE MONTH away, taking place from June 5–7. So we are sure to hear new, solid details and see actual gameplay footage of The Elder Scrolls Online in the near future. The game will also likely get its platforms revealed soon (maybe in that Game Informer issue) and we are likely to learn the first details of the next Xbox, next PlayStation, and new games for Wii U at E3 2012, so we may get confirmation on what next-gen platforms, if any, Zenimax has in mind for The Elder Scrolls Online. Will it be PC only? Stay tuned and get hyped!
