Bethesda have to be applauded for having built up a wonderful lineup of a number of huge franchises spanning across a number of gameplay styles. Dishonored, Doom, Wolfenstein, Prey, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls- there’s something for everyone here. However, their recent (relative) failures and mishandling with regards to marketing of their single player properties is a little disconcerting, to say the least.
Dishonored 2 was very well received when it launched last year, but its sales fell short of the mark compared to Bethesda’s estimated figures- so too did Prey, a game that launched to critical success but, due to its niche nature, couldn’t break into mainstream popularity. Similarly, Bethesda’s handling of their Creation Club has also worried a lot of people. The recently released superb The Evil Within 2 also isn’t selling well, thanks to Bethesda’s poor marketing of the game.
All of this combined has cast doubts over their future projects. There’s no doubt that games such as Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Skyrim for the Nintendo Switch will do well, simply by virtue of being what they are and belonging to some major, major franchises. And that is also exactly why such issues probably won’t have much of an impact on The Elder Scrolls 6’s launch, if any at all.
The Elder Scrolls has been a major name in the gaming industry for years, and it’s become bigger still with the releases of each successive game, especially Skyrim and all its subsequent re-releases. Keeping that in mind, it really doesn’t seem like a sequel to the series would fail on any sort of a level when it launches- whenever that might be.
Make no mistake, I’m not implying it’ll be an excellent game no matter what and receive rave reviews everywhere simply because it’s The Elder Scrolls. But as far as sales go, the name of the series by itself will be enough to sustain the game for at least a short while. If the game’s as good as its predecessors have been, this problem won’t exist at all.
This article is part of our series on Bethesda’s next big entry into the world of The Elder Scrolls. Through this series we take a look at the possible new features that Bethesda can add into the next The Elder Scrolls game, based on what they implemented in the previous entries and player feedback.