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Bethesda Declined Obsidian's Proposals to Develop The Elder Scrolls Spin-Offs

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
Chris Avellone, a founding member of Obsidian Entertainment, has confirmed an article published by 80 Level. The article states that the studio has in the past proposed several The Elder Scrolls games to Bethesda Softworks, but that, unfortunately, the publisher turned down each of these proposals.

The designer specifies that one of the projects was to fulfil the same function as Fallout: New Vegas, which was released between Fallout 3 and 4. The aim was to launch a spin-off of the The Elder Scrolls franchise before the launch of the next main game.


 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Should get them on a Starfield game. Would make more sense than The Outer Worlds 2, but too late for that.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
I do prefer Obsidian doing their own thing, even though their more recent stuff has been kinda.... junk. Even so, I think there's more creativity to be had than within the ultra-generic universes that Bethesda's created.
 

mansoor1980

Member
no remasters , no spin-off titles , why todd? why the dominatrix like behaviour?

DepcSkxX4AUkzQR.jpg
 

GHG

Member
Honestly I like Obsidian doing their own thing more.
Avowed is more exciting to me than a Fallout or ES spin off.

Something new versus more of what I’d be getting anyways.

Bethesda excel in world building and lore but their questing and writing is dogshit, increasingly so as time has gone on.

Obsidian excel in the areas that Bethesda fall short and do less well in the areas that Bethesda excel in, they ought to work together.
 

Puscifer

Member
Seems like Bethesda doesn't agree with the lot of you that think NV is the golden standard for the series.
It's more that a spin off did actual role playing and choice better than Bethesda did. It's more like they don't want another cult of personality around another title they didn't develop, fuck Fallout 4 and Starfield
 

SJRB

Gold Member
They probably don't want to get outdone at their own game series by someone else again.
 

Regginator

Member
Of course they declined. God forbid Obsidian would outshine Bethesda on another of their IP again. Fallout is one thing, but Elder Scrolls is Bethesda's baby. Would've been absolutely catastrophic for them if Obsidian would make an NV-esque Elder Scrolls game.

My headcanon is that Bethesda is furious that New Vegas continues to be the most talked about game of the Fallout fanbase even over a decade later, and not 3 or 4. And the fact that New Vegas was supposed to be a mere side-dish to the main course is added salt to their wounds.
 

Laptop1991

Member
What a shame, at least we would of had an extra single player TES game to play, unlike now and however long it takes a new one to come out, Fallout New Vegas is a great game considering Obsidian only had 18 months to make it, i would have been all for it.
 
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Dane

Member
Bethesda excel in world building and lore but their questing and writing is dogshit, increasingly so as time has gone on.

Obsidian excel in the areas that Bethesda fall short and do less well in the areas that Bethesda excel in, they ought to work together.
Spot on, and the reason why BGS won't change shit is because they never get constructive criticism (let alone their ego), they know for decades ever since Oblivion release/Fallout 3 announcement they would get hatred from the ultra hardcore community despite everyone else loving their games, and how their detractors would make it loud a revisionism that their games were never good in the first place while giving a pass to anything else that is way more flawed in an desperate attempt to "slam dunk" against Bethesda.

If these people learned why Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout 3 were loved day one they would have understood that they were regarded as very innovative products of their time.
 
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Zannegan

Member
I've been waiting years for Bethesda to push out Starfield to clear the decks for a new ES. An Obsidian spinoff would have filled the gap nicely. It also would have given them a nicely updated everything to port Morrowind and Oblivion to. Sigh...
 

SimTourist

Member
Bethesda seems to have really poor leadership.

Their biggest franchise, Elder Scrolls, last released in 2011 and the next one isn’t expected until 2026 at the earliest.

15 years between releases is terrible management and to have a quality studio offer to fill in that timeline and get turned down is ridiculous.
2026 is optimistic. They literally just started working on it, that game ain't coming out until 2030 at the earliest.
 

Fess

Member
Awowed feels like Obsidian’s The Elder Scrolls. Time will tell how close they can get. Going by The Outer Worlds Obsidian is great at writing but maybe not world building and exploration and interactivity. I enjoyed TOW a lot though.
 
I do prefer Obsidian doing their own thing, even though their more recent stuff has been kinda.... junk. Even so, I think there's more creativity to be had than within the ultra-generic universes that Bethesda's created.

Never seeing a Chris Avellone Elder Scrolls spin off is a travesty

GG Todd you dik ed
Eh... Have you played The Outerworlds? Filled to the brim with unappealing bland characters and npcs. I believe that was made without him and pillars was made with him (or at least the first pillars game) , and you can tell.
It also makes all the women look like dudes. He got removed from Dying light 2 (also story in that is shit compared to the first one).

Chris was cancelled after 2 women accused him of trying to screw them while drunk. They later had to retract the statement in court and payout a 7 figure settlement (ouch), both women said he did nothing and they only wrote what they did to "support women and minorities in the industry" basically they made shit up for clicks and virtue signially "meee too reeee". And a good man/great writer lost his job over accusations becasue all these companies are infested with parasite cultists.

He is no longer with the staff and they cacnelled him over hearsay. I don't believe obsidian is who they were when new vegas was made. It will be shit unless they get better writers and take out the culitsists but I have a feeling it will be shit.
 
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BGS and Todd know for a fact that Obsidian (with Chris) would shit all over their ES franchise, like FONV did for FO, and don't want the PR nightmare.

There's a reason NV's widely regarded as the best modern FO, and the total conversion mods (with fully VA'd complete storylines) justify the community's feedback. There's even a total conversion mod for FO3 in NV where your saves are interchangeable.

Now imagine all that in a ES mid-sequel, before TESVI, that shits over Morrowind and Oblivion, combined. Skyrim's not even in the picture lol
 

Xion_Stellar

People should stop referencing data that makes me feel uncomfortable because games get ported to platforms I don't like
Eh... Have you played The Outerworlds? Filled to the brim with unappealing bland characters and npcs. I believe that was made without him and pillars was made with him (or at least the first pillars game) , and you can tell.
It also makes all the women look like dudes. He got removed from Dying light 2 (also story in that is shit compared to the first one).

Chris was cancelled after 2 women accused him of trying to screw them while drunk. They later had to retract the statement in court and payout a 7 figure settlement (ouch), both women said he did nothing and they only wrote what they did to "support women and minorities in the industry" basically they made shit up for clicks and virtue signially "meee too reeee". And a good man/great writer lost his job over accusations becasue all these companies are infested with parasite cultists.

He is no longer with the staff and they cacnelled him over hearsay. I don't believe obsidian is who they were when new vegas was made. It will be shit unless they get better writers and take out the culitsists but I have a feeling it will be shit.
If they really want to they can always hire him back as a consultant or part timer because despite these issues he didn't leave the industry he was credited for working on Path Finder: Wrath of the Righteous that came out last year.
 
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It's more that a spin off did actual role playing and choice better than Bethesda did. It's more like they don't want another cult of personality around another title they didn't develop, fuck Fallout 4 and Starfield

Or they are jealous their Obsidian made a better Bethesda game then Bethesda. I kind of think this is more likely.

Don't disagree with Bethesda's motivation.

But the notion that NV is a better Fallout than 3 or 4 is hardly fact.
 
To be fair, New Vegas was an absolute shit show of a hot mess when it came out in 2010 and needed a lot of work to fix, but at the end of the day the questing in that game was second to none
 
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