Game development times are getting completely out of hand at this point. I really hoped that the advancement of game creation technology and more advanced engines, we would have seen sped up game development, but for the past decade we've seen nothing but the opposite go the point it's just ridiculous now for some games.
This also poses the other question - who thought it was a good idea to show an ES6 teaser if the game was the better part of a decade out at the time of the teaser?
Showing off the teaser was a good PR move in my opinion, because they played it right after they announced some ES mobile game. Same year Blizzard did the same with Diablo Immortal without mentioning Diablo 4 and we all know the "Do You Guys Not Have Phones?" meme that produced
This one isn't due to extended game development time really. They showed an ES6 teaser (just the logo really) at the same time they announced Starfield in 2018. They had just started working on Starfield at that time and had no plans to start ES6 until it was done. That's about now, ~5 years later. Expect ES6 to be out in 5-6 years, which is in-line with previous BGS games.
It's unfortunate, honestly. I care MUCH more for Elder Scrolls as a franchise over what they are doing with starfield, and I've been waiting for another one since my first playthrough of Skyrim when it launched on xbox 360. At this point I'm more excited for skyrim mods like skyblivion and skywind than anything bethesda is doing.
It could be worse. I'm in the camp that wants Fallout 5 (not that there's anything wrong per se with TES, just not top of my list), and they've said that they aren't even starting on that until after the next Elder Scrolls game that you want is done, so...
At this point I'm more excited about community projects like Skyblivion, Skywind or Beyond Skyrim than the next official game with how long it's taking. Skyblivion is planned to release in 2025 and their new roadmap shows how close to the finish line they are.
Yeh I remember how people were so hyped for Half Life 3 for years. Then how long it was taking became a meme. Then people pretty much stopped giving a shit about the Half Life franchise entirely.
Bethesda are risking that happening to their most valuable IP.
It was 4 years from Morrowind to Oblivion. 5 years from Oblivion to Skyrim. It's been twelve years since Skyrim. It's been five fucking years since they released the teaser trailer for Elder Scrolls VI. I can feel myself already losing interest.
It's been five fucking years since they released the teaser trailer for Elder Scrolls VI.
I really don't understand why publishers do this. At best, you can't give a representative image of the game 10 years in advance and people loose interest over time (Anybody that cared about Duke Nukem Forever?). The whole project might change drastically, maybe even multiple times.
At worst, both fans and shareholders get whiny about the releasedate and demand it to be released ASAP. Resulting in releases similar to that of Cyberpunk 2077. Why not announce the game when it is actually (almost) done?
That's pretty suck, but the worse news for me (and Fallout fans in general) is that it means that Fallout 5 is probably over a decade away. I really wish Microsoft would just tell them to hand over the Fallout 4 engine to Obsidian so they can make a Fallout New Vegas 2 or something.
Maybe finally implement the ability to not play a human, and possibly be some kind of ghoul, Super Mutant, or talking Deathclaw or whatever. I heard that they've tried in the past, but couldn't quite make it work.
It feels like the hype for this game already died a year or two ago... let alone lasting five more years. There's nothing wrong with ensuring quality by having longer development cycles, but a nearly twenty year gap? They dropped the ball hard on maintaining momentum. Even worse, that means they'll be courting additional delays due to the usual hiccup of entering a new console generation and potentially having to tinker with the game engine mid-development...
I loathe teasers. I know they're made for hype but with products like this that take years to complete I feel like they're just edging fans. I would much rather they wait to have a complete product to showcase than repeating stuff like cyberpunk 2077.