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[maniac-kun]

Bethesda creator of the Elder Scrolls Series (Morrowind, Oblivion) forms an MMO Studio.

August 1, 2007 (Rockville, MD) – ZeniMax Media Inc., parent company of Bethesda Softworks, announced today the creation of ZeniMax Online Studios. The division will be headed by Matt Firor, a well-known expert in the field of online gaming, and will focus on the Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMO) market segment.

Firor was one of the founders of Mythic Entertainment, where he worked for over 10 years on MMO titles. At Mythic he was the producer of the worldwide #1 smash hit Dark Age of Camelot, a MMORPG considered one of the most influential online games of all time. When he left Mythic in 2006, Firor was responsible for all development projects at the company. For the past year, he has been a consultant in the online gaming industry, advising leading publishers interested in entering the online market.

“This could not be a more perfect opportunity for me,” said Matt. “I am extremely impressed with ZeniMax and Bethesda Softworks management – their development philosophy closely matches my own, with an emphasis on quality, innovation, and craftsmanship. I am eager to get back to what I love – the development of cutting edge MMOG titles.”

“We are excited about the opportunities we have in the online gaming space and felt that Matt is the perfect person to lead this effort,” said James Leder, COO of ZeniMax Media. There are relatively few people who have the actual experience and knowledge that comes from having created a successful MMO, and Matt is the real deal. We feel fortunate to have him join our group.”

Firor is a graduate of George Washington University and has worked in the gaming industry for 17 years. He has lectured at the University of Virginia and Massachusetts Institute of Technology on game development topics, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. Firor has written articles for Game Developer Magazine and was a regular columnist covering online game development for the Korean gaming magazine “Onplayer”.

I hope they will make an Elder Scrolls MMO

 

[Fried Newt]

I hope they will make an Elder Scrolls MMO

A game just like Morrowind and Oblivion, but with a bunch of obnoxious 10-year-olds running around in it?

I guess that could still be considered a step up from hundreds of NPCs who all say exactly the same things.

 

[Lonesome_Raod]

I thought it was zenimax bethesdas parent company that has formed this. not bethesda themselves.

 

[Rekwest]

A game just like Morrowind and Oblivion, but with a bunch of obnoxious 10-year-olds running around in it?

The average age in those games are 25.

 

[Vagabundo]

The average age in those games are 25.

Average mental age is 10.

 

[Anno]

I thought it was zenimax bethesdas parent company that has formed this. not bethesda themselves.

You're right (it even says so in the very first sentence), but no one knows who ZeniMax is, so may as well use Bethesda.

Fallout Online would be great, but I don't think they own the rights to it sadly. Elder Scrolls it will most likely be. Done right it could be quite good.

 

[SpokkX]

A game just like Morrowind and Oblivion, but with a bunch of obnoxious 10-year-olds running around in it?

I guess that could still be considered a step up from hundreds of NPCs who all say exactly the same things.

I am not so sure I would call that a step up.. I´d rather have the NPC:s just say the same things

 

[RubberJohnny]

A game just like Morrowind and Oblivion, but with a bunch of obnoxious 10-year-olds running around in it?

I guess that could still be considered a step up from hundreds of NPCs who all say exactly the same things.

It'd be full of hundreds of people moaning about how Bethesda dumbed down the game, and hating everything in it, but still playing 40 hours a week.

 

[Razoric]

The average age in those games are 25.

:lol

Well hopefully one day the average MMO gamer will act like a 25 year old.

 

[Doodlebug]

Daggerfall Online kthx.

On a more serious note, this is good news.

 

[LaneDS]

You're right (it even says so in the very first sentence), but no one knows who ZeniMax is, so may as well use Bethesda.

Fallout Online would be great, but I don't think they own the rights to it sadly. Elder Scrolls it will most likely be. Done right it could be quite good.

I was under the impression that Bethesda outright purchased the rights to the Fallout IP? Could be wrong obviously.

 

[Anno]

I was under the impression that Bethesda outright purchased the rights to the Fallout IP? Could be wrong obviously.

According to this Activision holds the MMOG rights to it.

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

I was under the impression that Bethesda outright purchased the rights to the Fallout IP? Could be wrong obviously.

?interplay? kept the rights (or rather licensed bethesda when they sold the ip) to a fallout mmo

 

[ex0du5]

They won't (imo) make a Morrowind or Oblivion style MMO. Not unless they dedicate a huge amount of income to servers (keeping profits at a very low level). The amount of bandwidth needed for time sensitive actions (like real-time battles) is just not possible, or at least not feasible on MMO server infrastructure. They'd at the very least, need a distributed server environment, with a lot of dedicated bandwidth.

The only game to really achieve anything close to that has been Planetscape, but it's not done in a very MMO way. They just have different servers with dedicated connections for each planet, where a limited amount of users can connect. If Bethseda were to do something in that sense, it would lose a lot of the MMO and free-roam aspect.

 

[bengraven]

They won't be able to make an MMO exactly like Oblivion. Maybe with Morrowind's combat system.

But as for the brain age, the typical idiot gamer I deal with in WoW gets bored when playing an Elder Scrolls game. This is a good thing as we may not have to deal with them as much.

 

[Natsume]

As much as I would love an online Elder Scrolls, I can't help but feel that it would only disappoint due to dumbing down. Heck, I even thought Oblivion felt very dumbed down compared to Morrowind. Also I would want another installment of ES instead of an MMO... Here's hoping it's for a new IP or something.

 

[traveler]

Didn't they say in an interview a while back that Elder Scrolls V would be a ways off, possibly very different, and possibly online oriented? I can't find the interview, but I could have sworn they said that.

 

[Borys]

"WoW killer." - TeamXbox

 

[cicatriz]

"WoW killer." - TeamXbox

Not if it's even mildly challenging.

:lol

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

I can see why Firor took it up. ZeniMax is barely over 20 miles away from EA Mythic.

 

[Chris_C]

I thought it was zenimax bethesdas parent company that has formed this. not bethesda themselves.

Yeah, I was excited for a moment, then I actually read the PR.