Obsidian Entertainment reportedly pitched a Fallout: New Vegas-type The Elder Scrolls title to launch between mainline releases, but it apparently “didn’t gain much traction.”
This is according to former Obsidian writer Chris Avellone, who took to X (formerly Twitter) to suggest the studio had pitched multiple The Elder Scrolls spin-offs to Bethesda, who ultimately didn’t bite on any of them. Perhaps of most interest, though, is Avellone’s claim that there was a New Vegas-type spin-off of TES in the twinkle of Obsidian’s eye at one point, even if the idea never saw the light of day.
“One of The Elder Scrolls proposals (which I pitched) was intended to serve the same function as Fallout: New Vegas did between [Fallout 3] and [Fallout 4], to provide more adventures in the setting during the years before the next Bethesda release,” Avellone said. “I thought it couldn’t hurt to try and push a similar system to what Treyarch/Activision had going with Call of Duty at the time (but hopefully less rushed).”
Avellone said the idea was to allow for Bethesda to do a core release, and then Obsidian would release a The Elder Scrolls title “in [the] same world or a divergent timeline/era” before the next big core launch. Avellone says this proposed gameplan is “probably less relevant now that The Elder Scrolls Online is going, but at the time, it seemed to be something that could benefit both studios.”
Despite Obsidian’s pitches, Avellone says that “not surprisingly, it didn’t gain much traction.” He says he “never got the impression” that Bethesda was happy with the reception of Fallout: New Vegas – “good and bad.” In a follow up to a reply that suggested the state New Vegas was in at launch was in part why Bethesda wasn’t very happy with the launch, Avellone said he agreed – “it had numerous issues at launch that we could have worked harder to resolve,” he added.
Avellone’s claims about The Elder Scrolls come after 80 Level shared a report that turned up older comments the ex-Obsidian writer had made on the topic.
Avellone previously worked at Obsidian as a writer on Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas, as well as working on Dying Light 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. He now works in a freelance capacity.
While we’ll probably never get to see what a New Vegas-like spin-off The Elder Scrolls game looks like, and likely have a very long wait until The Elder Scrolls 6 makes its way to screens (likely an even longer wait than that between Grand Theft Auto V and VI), it’s interesting to imagine exactly what such a spinoff might have looked like. Maybe one day we’ll get an Obsidian TES spin-off – for now, I’ll just be marking the days on my calendar until the next main game gets any sort of release info.
Lead Image Credit: Obsidian Entertainment
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