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Todd Howard on the many Skyrim ports: "If you want us to stop releasing it, stop buying it."

Gander

Banned
On some games it diminishes the value and puts it in a bad light but not Skyrim. It's still one of the best games ever made hands down.
 
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Kreydo

Member
I'm curious to know the number of people who actualy finished Skyrim, or those who played more than 10 hours...

They brag about Skyrim while the game sells this much because it was the first 'OK' open world RPG for many people... Also if the video game press was more about actual JOURNALISM and not advertissing maybe the game wouldn't have such a ridiculous rating.(same things happened with BOTW for Nintendo players.)
Of course Skyrim is a cool game but he got so many flaws, it's actualy a poor RPG and god i don't even talk about his combat system... Without modding this game is just barely above average.(like all Bethesda RPG since Oblivion.)
 
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magnumpy

Member
still there is no information on when to expect a true next generation elder scrolls game, in spite of that little teaser they showed at E3 :(
 
I agree that Skyrim is pretty mediocre. I don't know how many hours I put into it, but I've played a few characters and completed the main story and the civil war storyline on at least one. Breath of the Wild is amazing, though.
 
I stopped buying it 7 years ago. I'm really tired of hearing about this game. Also Morrowind was better.

I feel bad for the TES team at this point - after 7 years of silence and no release in sight for the next game, how could they possibly live up to the expectations people must have? It's like another Half-Life 3, only I guess this game's actually been officially announced now.
 

Barakov

Member
I like how he just came out and said it. It has its' flaws, sure, but it hooked and is still hooking a great number of people. I still think it's one of those rare games like Deus Ex and Vampire The Masquerade : Bloodlines that people keep coming back to.
 

Dunki

Member
It is really impressive what this game still can sell. I am someone who always buys fallout and Skyrim but never finished one. With Skyrim I played like 90 hours and storywise i just got to the first dragon shout. I have no idea what the story was about. But this is also one of the strengths of this game.
 

Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...f-people-are-still-playing-skyrim-every-month

According to the game's director Todd Howard, "millions of people every month" are still playing Skyrim.

"Even now, the amount of people who play Skyrim seven years later; millions of people every month are playing that game," Howard replied. "That's why we keep releasing it. If you want us to stop releasing it, stop buying it."


My advice to that "Howard"is that he is not be so Egocentric and be more humble. Everything that goes up must come down.

One day he will cry if anyone dont buy their games.
 

Codes 208

Member
Im not mad they keep porting it. Im mad they keep porting it at full price without fixing bugs that had been crushed by the modding community of all things.
 

Nikodemos

Member
Bethesda re-releasing the game without patching half-decade-old issues is the very definition of minimum-effort cash-in.
 

Grinchy

Banned
And they have so little pride in the product that they won't even fix bugs from its launch despite charging full price for it many times over.
 
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Michele

you.
To be honest Todd is right, we can NOT force the devs to stop producing Skyrim.

If the user doesn't like that game, he/she doesn't have to buy that game, instead of being annoying. Although telling someone to stop buying it could be a bit rude.
 

Mr Branding

Member
He's right. I was a Skyrim ps3 player on release and I hated that version of the game, but managed to rush to the end, slowdowns and all.
I bought the SE on ps4 this year and experienced it all again with Dlc included, and hands down it's a great game.
I still feel Oblivion has a better world and quests, but the atmosphere in this is amazing. May Jeremy Soule never leave from the composer chair.
 
The version of skyrim I am playing is very far from the version they are selling. Just want to put that out there even though the conclusion bethdesa came with is the more actiony an rpg is, the better it sales.

Oh and if you are gonna brag about your game still selling, how about you take some pride in your work and fix the mountain of bugs. Start by looking at the community patch.
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
Im not mad they keep porting it. Im mad they keep porting it at full price without fixing bugs that had been crushed by the modding community of all things.
This

The least they could do is to make the Unofficial Patches official and roll them out to all platforms.
 

BANGS

Banned
Why would anyone want them to stop releasing it? You don't have to keep buying it yourself... it's for those that want to buy it again or for the first time on their shiny new console...
 

Kreydo

Member
He's right. I was a Skyrim ps3 player on release and I hated that version of the game, but managed to rush to the end, slowdowns and all.
I bought the SE on ps4 this year and experienced it all again with Dlc included, and hands down it's a great game.
I still feel Oblivion has a better world and quests, but the atmosphere in this is amazing. May Jeremy Soule never leave from the composer chair.
I agree with you about what Jeremy Soule made for Skyrim wandering atmosphere.
But man what you write above hurt me so much, to know that you played Skyrim but without the most immersive and mavelous element of it...
A meteo/climat or shader mods? You can't imagine how incredible Skyrim feel with it and a suble ENB. : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/17802
A Flora mods? Falkreath forest is on another level. : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/141
A 'living' companion/follower? Inigo, Sofia for those 2 characters only the game deserve to be replayed from the begining. : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40960
Deep narrative NPC and quest? 3D NPC is better and more immersive than any Skyrim vanilla quest : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8429
And some tweak mods, to avoid oneshooting boss with a bow or being billionaire after 10hours.

To me the large majority of Skyrim players missed the whole game potential, and it sadden me a bit... (No master race debate or whatever.)
I really wish people wasn't so 'scared' about modding or stop thinking it's just cheating or boobies...
But the worse thing is Bethesda who re-release the game over and over without any enhancement, taking new customers/players for imbeciles.
 
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Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
I've always found the idea of these games much more fun than the actual gameplay. We like to have all kinds of freedom to explore on our own terms and roleplay, but as for Skyrim, the actual game had mediocre story and sub-par mechanics.
 
I'm guilty but I swear I just bought my last copy of Skyrim. I have the Skyrim CE from the original PS3 launch, I bought the special edition remaster for Xbox One when that game out like last year and my final copy was just bought earlier this week when I bought the Skyrim VR bundle, actually being in a VR Skyrim is definitely my favourite way to play.
 

manfestival

Member
I never purchased it but a friend gave it to me a code for it some time back. The game did a lot at the time it was released. Though I played it a year removed from release and it really wasn't as special as people hyped it to be. Just like fallout 3. It has this interesting fan base that swears up and down that they are the best games ever. I just don't see it. Where games like witcher 3 or gta 5 are far easier to argue that for.

I do remember skyrim ps3 was a nightmare. After all, we are getting a 60 dollar re-re-release of GTA 5 coming soon. Full price for a 5 year old game. Only one that can be blamed for these minimum effort cash ins are the consumers.
 

IISANDERII

Member
I really didn’t like Skyrim but I hold nothing against anybody who did, bought multiple copies or Bethesda itself! :)

And am I permitted to let my desire for a New Vegas remastering be known? :sneaky:
 
I'm curious to know the number of people who actualy finished Skyrim, or those who played more than 10 hours...

They brag about Skyrim while the game sells this much because it was the first 'OK' open world RPG for many people... Also if the video game press was more about actual JOURNALISM and not advertissing maybe the game wouldn't have such a ridiculous rating.(same things happened with BOTW for Nintendo players.)
Of course Skyrim is a cool game but he got so many flaws, it's actualy a poor RPG and god i don't even talk about his combat system... Without modding this game is just barely above average.(like all Bethesda RPG since Oblivion.)

I've got 225 hours on the Switch version alone. In fact, the announcement of Skyrim on Switch was the system seller for me even though I'd already owned it on other systems. Being able to take the same character on flights and play at home on the 65" TV was easily worth the $360 purchase price of the Switch + Skyrim.

And it's just fine without mods. I've never quite understood the mindset that games are only good with mods. The only games I've ever modded are the Baldur's Gate series (after playing them many times vanilla and wanting to change things up) and Morrowind just to get rid of the blocky limbs. Skyrim stands just fine on its own.
 

Cosmogony

Member
Howard has a valid point. In a free market, customers vote with their wallets and, apparently, a considerable number keeps voting with their dollars for Skyrim to be making an appearance on yet more platforms. Bethesda is voluntarily offering Skyrim, customers are voluntarily buying it. What seems to be the problem?

In all likelihood, porting Skyrim to devices of all walks of life wouldn't require that much manpower as to make a dent on the development of brand new IPs. Again, what seems to be the problem?
 

Kreydo

Member
And it's just fine without mods. I've never quite understood the mindset that games are only good with mods. The only games I've ever modded are the Baldur's Gate series (after playing them many times vanilla and wanting to change things up) and Morrowind just to get rid of the blocky limbs. Skyrim stands just fine on its own.
It's about gaming standard and comfort.. (I'm not judging) I just can't imagine myself playing on Switch at all, and specialy a game that have so much to deliver within his immersive feeling like Skyrim.
I don't watch movie on my phone for the same reason I don't play game on Switch or any other mobile device. It has nothing to do with modding thought... Because modding enhance Skyrim in every possible way, it's not about liking it or not.
Vanilla Skyrim isn't the pinacle of his experience, it's just what Bethesda studio dev could do within their time and ressources. it's totally ok to find the result fine anyway. :)
 
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Never seen a producer that honest, basically saying "yeah I'd like to work on a sequel, but the king of couch potato losers who play Skyrim are also the kind of degenerate who buy ports and editions several times, so my publisher will continue milking those losers dry".

Sad for him, I understand but when you cater to tasteless couch potato that's what you get.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Never seen a producer that honest, basically saying "yeah I'd like to work on a sequel, but the king of couch potato losers who play Skyrim are also the kind of degenerate who buy ports and editions several times, so my publisher will continue milking those losers dry".

Sad for him, I understand but when you cater to tasteless couch potato that's what you get.
Except that they are working on a sequel.
 

Carlinhos_0986

Neo Member
Bought it on Switch last year because I had never played an Elder Scrolls game, and I was super excited. Played it for 2 hours and put it down (and I usually play and replay my RPGs, clocking hundreds of hours). Art direction is bad, writing is sooo boring and the little combat I experienced was shallow. Had no motivation to continue. Maybe it was something groundbreaking seven years ago, I dunno, but I didn't see anything special about it.
 
Except that they are working on a sequel.

Of course they "are", they might as well have been for years now, but if you can still milk something years after release, why would publisher produce and release a sequel, whether it's GTA VI or Skyrim VI? They don't and won't as long as they can milk it, and that's what Todd Howard's particularly straight-forward statement is about.
 

younGrandon

Neo Member
400 hours in the winter of 2015 and another 60 hours a summer or two ago. I wont touch this game again. It's worn out for me but I would recommend it to new players still. It's entertaining, that's all there needs to be said.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Of course they "are", they might as well have been for years now, but if you can still milk something years after release, why would publisher produce and release a sequel, whether it's GTA VI or Skyrim VI? They don't and won't as long as they can milk it, and that's what Todd Howard's particularly straight-forward statement is about.
Dude,

You cant be saying that theyre holding back on releasing ES6 so they can keep on re-releasing Skyrim and expect to be taken seriously. Thats just dumb business. Skyrim over the course of its lifetime has sold around 30 million copies. Therefore it reasonable that (at worst) ES6 will sell around half those numbers. ~15 million. With that conservative estimate you can rest assured that Bethesda would love to get ES6 out. No matter how many times they release Skyrim its not going to pull in those kinds of numbers anymore. But it doesnt work that way and no matter how many times the anti-remaster crowd says it, re-releasing old games is not slowing down new games. ES6 is likely still in it's planning stages as Bethesda knows how important ES6 is. Its not like they can stop re-releasing Skyrim and then ES6 will be out 6 months later.

One other detail that is kinda important:
There are no other game consoles left to release Skyrim on!
 
Dude,

You cant be saying that theyre holding back on releasing ES6 so they can keep on re-releasing Skyrim and expect to be taken seriously. Thats just dumb business. Skyrim over the course of its lifetime has sold around 30 million copies. Therefore it reasonable that (at worst) ES6 will sell around half those numbers. ~15 million. With that conservative estimate you can rest assured that Bethesda would love to get ES6 out. No matter how many times they release Skyrim its not going to pull in those kinds of numbers anymore. But it doesnt work that way and no matter how many times the anti-remaster crowd says it, re-releasing old games is not slowing down new games. ES6 is likely still in it's planning stages as Bethesda knows how important ES6 is. Its not like they can stop re-releasing Skyrim and then ES6 will be out 6 months later.

One other detail that is kinda important:
There are no other game consoles left to release Skyrim on!

"That's just dumb business", unfortunately for you, me and Todd Howard, it isn't: if particular product in a franchise or product line is still selling high, you don't want to fragment your sale and spend costly new contracts into producing and marketing a new one.

So in order word, if the vast majority of people were tired or not stupid enough to buy the same game twice, or even a 7 year old game as the same high-price, ESVI would be already planned for 2019 because they would have to sell a new main title in the franchise. Again Todd Howard's comment is pretty explicit and straight-foward which is rare coming from a director: if people want a new ES, then stop buying the ports we're releasing...

Unless you're calling the actual ES director a lier, then you have to understand that yes, people accepting to buy the same game several time at full prices are not just degenerately stupid, they actually are the reason why Elder Scroll VI has not been coming. Now as you said there's no platform left for them to re-release Skyrim, so that's probably why they teased ESVI at E3, they know it's eventually going to be time, like GTA VI.
 

BANGS

Banned
"That's just dumb business", unfortunately for you, me and Todd Howard, it isn't: if particular product in a franchise or product line is still selling high, you don't want to fragment your sale and spend costly new contracts into producing and marketing a new one.

So in order word, if the vast majority of people were tired or not stupid enough to buy the same game twice, or even a 7 year old game as the same high-price, ESVI would be already planned for 2019 because they would have to sell a new main title in the franchise. Again Todd Howard's comment is pretty explicit and straight-foward which is rare coming from a director: if people want a new ES, then stop buying the ports we're releasing...

Unless you're calling the actual ES director a lier, then you have to understand that yes, people accepting to buy the same game several time at full prices are not just degenerately stupid, they actually are the reason why Elder Scroll VI has not been coming. Now as you said there's no platform left for them to re-release Skyrim, so that's probably why they teased ESVI at E3, they know it's eventually going to be time, like GTA VI.
You act as though Bethesda has been doing nothing the last 7 years to create revenue with new games. ES6 will come when it's time, not when it's time to stop milking ES5. They have other IPs they gotta work on too ya know...
 
You act as though Bethesda has been doing nothing the last 7 years to create revenue with new games. ES6 will come when it's time, not when it's time to stop milking ES5. They have other IPs they gotta work on too ya know...

Not relevant to the discussion.
 
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