The Elder Scrolls 6 and ESO devs are "equal partners" in the evolution of Elder Scrolls lore
The Elder Scrolls Online is the elephant in the room where discussions of The Elder Scrolls 6 are concerned, though calling it an elephant is obviously missing the opportunity for a banger lore joke – “dragon”, perhaps, or even “Numidium”? Launched back in 2014 after seven years in development, ESO's hybrid of deceptively single-player-ish Elder Scrolls presentation with MMO fixtures attracted a lukewarm response, initially. “At its best The Elder Scrolls Online looks like a faithful addition to the lore,” intoned Brendy in our own launch impressions. “At its worst it is a derivative and uninventive anachronism.”
ZeniMax Online have made big strides with the game over the years, however - binning off monthly subscriptions and introducing a “level-free” format in the One Tamriel update in 2016. ESO has also swelled and sprouted steadily as a work of geography and history, with major chapters introducing areas hitherto only mentioned in dusty collectible tomes, or creatively reintroducing locations from the single player series – the forthcoming Gold Road expansion, out in June 2024, takes us to the West Weald in Cyrodiil, an area last seen in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.
Our Alec Meer (RPS in peace) was cautiously impressed by ESO’s interpretation of Morrowind, and despite slapping the 2014 version with that most equivocal of scores, a 7/10, I myself am interested to jump back in after a decade's absence and see what ZeniMax have done with the setting. The fairly obvious ulterior motive here is that I’m keen to see if ESO is laying any particular foundations for the next numbered Elder Scrolls RPG. It is, after all, an evolving live interpretation of the Elder Scrolls world, and a real-time window on the activities and preferences of Elder Scrolls players.
True, it’s set centuries before The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and therefore presumably The Elder Scrolls 6: ???, to avoid any creative clashes. But as game director Matt Firor
Read more on rockpapershotgun.com
