The
Bethesda Blog clarifies statements
attributed to Todd Howard
saying that Bethesda had no current plans for an
Elder Scrolls V, but
that "there's always a chance" an Elder Scrolls MMOG would be made (thanks
Kotaku). Apparently the comment about ES5 was misinterpreted:
Apparently some folks got a bit upset by reports based on Todd’s talk at
QuakeCon last week. An article came out where Todd was quoted as saying we had
no plans for a TES V. He did not say that. That was not a direct quote from him.
That was someone’s interpretation of what he said. I know, I was there.
At his QuakeCon talk he was asked when TESV is coming out and Todd replied,
“Don’t look for a new Elder Scrolls game in the near future.” He also went on to
say how much the franchise means to us and that it definitely will continue. He
just wasn’t going to provide any timeframe on “when.” This should not be news to
anyone that has been paying attention. Both Todd and I have said repeatedly
that, of course, we’re going to do another Elder Scrolls game. The last one was
enormously popular. So was the one before that. You get the idea. So do we.
Todd and Bethesda Game Studios are hard at work on their next big game, and
we’re not ready to discuss it. As always, we prefer to have something amazing to
show when we talk about it. We aren’t going to confirm or deny or comment on
speculation, nor are we going to give hints about anything. If you know us by
now, you know we don’t really do that.
In regards to the MMO comment, he was asked if there was “any chance of an Elder
Scrolls MMO” and he replied — in a joking fashion — by saying “I guess there’s a
chance.” To be clear, Todd and his team do not make MMOs, for any franchise, at
all. We have another division – ZeniMax Online Studios – which is lead by Matt
Firor, and they are working on an MMO. They have not said anything about what
game they are making. When ZeniMax Online is ready to show what they are up to,
we’ll let everyone know. Until then we aren’t going to provide hints or
speculate on what they’re doing either.
Hope that helps clear things up.