The Skyrim adventure is coming to an end. Bethesda Game Studios announced on their blog today that after more than six years…
The Skyrim adventure is coming to an end. Bethesda Game Studios announced on their blog today that after more than six years of development, the team would be moving on to other adventures – essentially putting to rest any hopes for significant updates to the latest chapter in The Elder Scrollsfranchise.
Skyrim has been a labor of love for us since we started designing it in 2006. We never imagined it would become the phenomenon it has. And that is because of you, the fans. It was all of you who made it a success. We can’t thank you enough for embracing the game, spreading the word, and making it your own.
The announcement comes just two months after the “Dragonborn” DLC was released for the remaining platforms (PC and PS3), and even though we won’t be able to expect any forthcoming DLC, Bethesda announced they will be keeping tabs on the title saying, “…we’ll still have minor updates to Skyrim as needed. We’ve invested so much of ourselves into Skyrim and will never truly say goodbye to it.”
Yet, even in the sadness of the announcement, the team hinted at a ray of a future sunshine saying,
For the last year and a half we’ve been working on new content for Skyrim; from the game updates, Creation Kit, Steam Workshop, Kinect support, to DLCs. Parts of our team have also been in pre-production on our next major project, and that game is at the point where it requires the studio’s full attention to make it our biggest and best work yet.
Most fans interpreted the ‘next major project’ comment as Fallout 4, and we know Pete Hines of Bethesda has previously gone on the record saying, “The whole reason we went out and acquired the license and that we now own Fallout is that we clearly intended to make more than one.” Similarly, Erik Dellums, who voiced Galaxy News Radio DJ Three Dog in Fallout 3, tweeted that it looked like he would be reprising his role in the near future.
Nevertheless, the news that one of the highest reviewed (and praised) adventure games would be wrapping up – well, it’s bittersweet. One can’t help think of T.S. Eliot at a time like this:
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
In the first week of release, Bethesda stated that 7 million copies of Skyrim had been shipped to retailers worldwide and it was the fastest selling game to date on Steam. As of July 2012, an estimated 10 million copies have been sold.
As a person who has logged over 200 hours in the game, this news felt a little like an arrow to the knee.
Source: Bethesda Blog