The Elder Scrolls: Blades Won’t Have An Offline Mode On Switch, But It Might Be Added In Later

The Elder Scrolls: Blades brought a bite-sized version of Bethesda’s popular RPG franchise to mobile devices earlier in the year, and was met with mixed reception upon launch. Though it was a success in terms of the number of players it attracted, it drew plenty of criticism for its monetization. Regardless, later this year, Bethesda will be bringing the game to even more players, as The Elder Scrolls: Blades launches on the Switch.

If, however, you were hoping that the Switch version of the game would have an offline mode, unlike the mobile version – given that the Switch, unlike phones, cannot be connected to the Internet the whole time – you might be a bit disappointed. Speaking with Nintendo Everything, project lead Craig Lafferty confirmed that the Switch version won’t have an offline mode- though it is something that Bethesda could consider adding in later.

“Yes,” said Lafferty when asked if the game would have to be online constantly. “It will, but having an offline mode is something we definitely hear from a lot of people for the game in general, so that’s something we always constantly look at – like how would we do it. We want to make sure – the online game, we’re adding PvP in the fall, we want to make sure cheating isn’t an issue. So it’s like, how do we do an online mode that makes sense? Right now we’re requiring an internet connection, but in the future it’s something we may add if we can have a good solution for it.”

Well, let’s hope Bethesda does add it in. If someone is using the Switch as a portable system and can’t access Wifi or connect to the internet while they’re, say, on the bus, that would mean they would be unable to play The Elder Scrolls: Blades– which sort of defeats the purpose.