Talk:The Elder Scrolls/Dumping ground

History
The development of the series began in 1992, when the staff of Bethesda Softworks, which had until then been a predominantly sports game-producing company, decided to shift the focus of their upcoming Arena from arena combat into role-playing. The team, inspired by Ultima Underworld and Dungeons & Dragons, released the massive and open first-person RPG The Elder Scrolls: Arena in 1994 for DOS PC systems. The game began a tradition of games based on the principles of "[being] who you want and [doing] what you want" that have persisted throughout the series' history.

The next Elder Scrolls series game — The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall — was published in 1996. Fueled by the modest success of Arena, Daggerfall was even more ambitious than its predecessor. Daggerfall attempted to create a game world twice the size of Great Britain, rendered in a truly 3D engine, and build a skill-system that revolved around skill building rather than experience gains. Daggerfall suffered from that very ambition: rushed to publication, the game was deemed "tortuously buggy" by one commentator. Despite Daggerfall ' s commercial success, "the game still bears the mark of bad code."

Following Daggerfall ' s release, Bethesda ceased any development on any numbered series title until 1998, developing in the interim The Elder Scrolls Legends: Battlespire, released in 1997, and The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, released in 1998. Both games had a smaller focus than the numbered series titles: Battlespire was a linear action RPG; Redguard was a slightly less linear third-person action-adventure game. The games sold poorly, and Bethesda flirted with bankruptcy. Only with the cash influx brought by Bethesda's acquisition by the well-funded ZeniMax Media in 1999, did Bethesda return to the fore.

With The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Bethesda tripled their staff and pushed again towards hardware-intensive gaming. Morrowind saw a return to the old-style expansive and non-linear gameplay, but also a shift towards individually detailed landscapes and items, and a smaller game-world than past titles. Morrowind was released on both the Xbox and the PC, and saw popular and critical success on both, selling upwards of 4 million units by mid 2005. Two expansions were quickly released for Morrowind between late 2002 and early 2003: The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal, and The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon.

Work began on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in 2002, immediately after Morrowind ' s publication. Oblivion focused on providing improved AI interacting dynamically with the gameworld, courtesy of Bethesda's proprietary Radiant AI; physics, courtesy of the Havok engine; and impressive graphics. The game was released, following much press coverage, on the PC and Xbox 360 in early 2006, and the PlayStation 3 in early 2007. Bethesda released one content collection and one expansion pack for Oblivion in late 2006 and early 2007: The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine and The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles.

In late October 2008, shortly after the release of Fallout 3, Bethesda's Publishing Executive, Paul Oughton, indicated that the series' fifth installment could be released in 2010. ZeniMax Media, the owner of Bethesda Softworks, had trademarked the name " Skyrim " in 2006, but its relation to the fifth installment of the series is uncertain. At QuakeCon 2009, Todd Howard was asked about a fifth game, he replied that while the series will continue, "don't look for a new Elder Scrolls game in the near future."

The Elder Scrolls release timeline (Old timeline)

 * 1994 - The Elder Scrolls: Arena – MS-DOS
 * 1996 - The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall – MS-DOS
 * 1997 - An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire – MS-DOS
 * 1998 - The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard – MS-DOS
 * 2002 - The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind – Windows, Xbox
 * 2002 - The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal – Windows, Xbox (as part of the Game of the Year Edition only)
 * 2003 - The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon – Windows, Xbox (as part of the Game of the Year Edition only)
 * 2003 - The Elder Scrolls Travels: Stormhold – Java-enabled mobile phones
 * 2004 - The Elder Scrolls Travels: Dawnstar – Java-enabled mobile phones
 * 2004 - The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey – N-Gage
 * 2006 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
 * 2006 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine – Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
 * 2007 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles – Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3