The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is just a few short months away from release. Â Bethesda’s team, hard at work on the title, recently took time out for another interview about the franchise. Â Todd Howard fielded some unique questions in the interview, one which pertained to the possibility of The Elder Scrolls franchise pulling a Fallout, and getting externally developed. Â Howard said that the team is taking it as it comes and that the Fallout: New Vegas situation was a unique one because of Obsidian’s experience with the franchise.
Can you ever see an Elder Scrolls game being developed externally like with Fallout: New Vegas?
I don’t know, we kind of take it bit by bit. I mean New Vegas was unique: as a publisher, we wanted to do something with Obsidian; we knew we were moving on Elder Scrolls; they had a team available. They gave us the pitch and we were like, ‘That would be a really fun game’. But they had experience with the IP, and with Elder Scrolls we don’t have that. I wouldn’t rule that out, but generally with everything we want to keep it internal.
Right now as a fan of both the Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises, it’s hard to root for Obsidian developing an Elder Scrolls game after how Fallout: New Vegas turned out. Â The kinks are still being ironed out as we speak, though it has definitely gotten better with time, but it was nowhere near as good as Fallout 3. Â I’m not saying that Todd Howard’s team is better than the guys and gals at Obsidian, but I am saying…. ok I am saying that. Â Would I have loved for Alpha Protocol to be outstanding? Â Yes, why yes I would. Â Would I have loved even more to be able to play Fallout: New Vegas on my Xbox 360 without the game freezing every 10 minutes? Â Again, yes and I don’t think that’s too much to ask.