LogInApparently, the developer is afraid of comparisons to previous TES games.
No matter what your stance on Bethesda and its latest projects is, it's undeniable that the studio's The Elder Scrolls franchise is one of the most influential and beloved video game series of all time, with its community still thriving even 13 years after the launch of the latest mainline game, TES V: Skyrim. It turns out, however, that Bethesda likely views this universal acclaim and popularity as a curse rather than a blessing and could, in fact, be apprehensive about the series' legacy, fearing that the sixth mainline installment might disappoint the millions of dedicated fans.
This revelation recently came from Bruce Nesmith, a Former Designer at Bethesda who worked on Daggerfall, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and 4, and Starfield, during an interview with YouTuber Kiwi Talkz. Discussing the challenge of meeting community expectations, Nesmith stated that it is nearly impossible for The Elder Scrolls 6 to live up to them, especially since it will inevitably be compared to previous entries in the series.
The studio's recent releases like Fallout 76 and Starfield, which the community has mixed feelings about, add another layer of complexity, with many fans still hoping that Bethesda would make a comeback and treat us to a masterpiece of Skyrim proportions once again with the release of a new TES game.
Finally, the wait itself intensifies the expectations of the community tenfold, which is hardly surprising considering that said community hasn't been blessed with a single official trailer or even statement about the state of The Elder Scrolls 6 for more than six years, making it all the more likely that a significant portion of fans will end up disappointed regardless of what Bethesda eventually reveals.
"The Elder Scrolls 6 is undoubtedly going to be an amazing game, but it's going to be compared to all the previous games that Bethesda made," Nesmith said in the interview.
Expectations aside, The Elder Scrolls 6 is incredibly likely to dash the hopes of thousands of fans no matter how good it is, as the series' history has shown. Even today, 13 years after the release of Skyrim, I still vividly remember many Oblivion fans lambasting it for simplifying lots of aspects from the previous games, removing skills, attributes, underwater combat, and the ability to create custom spells, uninspiring quests, dozens of essential (immortal) NPCs, lore inaccuracies... the list goes on and on.
The same happened in 2006 with the launch of Oblivion, when numerous Morrowind enthusiasts criticized TES IV for basically the same reasons as outlined above – simplification, removal of skills and features, fast travel, goofy dialogue that many still remember Oblivion for, and such.
And believe it or not, even Morrowind, a game many consider to be the best installment in the series, wasn't received too warmly by old-school Daggerfall fans, who condemned the third part for, you won't believe it, removing features and simplifying the gameplay in general, not to mention drastically reducing the map size from 161,600 kilometers sq, comparable to the real-life country of Tunisia, to a measly 16 kilometers sq, around 6.5 times smaller than Tunisia's capital city.
Considering this pattern, it almost feels fated that TES 6 will disappoint lots of fans, what isn't certain, however, is whether or not it'd be able to replace despondent ex-fans with new ones like all the other games did. And this, unlike the community's expectations, depends solely on Bethesda and the quality of the product they deliver in the end.
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