Why a Fallout: New Vegas-Like Game for The Elder Scrolls Would Have Been a Good Thing

Highlights

• Fans have been waiting a long time for a new mainline Elder Scrolls game, and spin-off mobile games and online versions don’t satisfy their itch.
• Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian had pitched ideas for Elder Scrolls spin-offs, but Bethesda rejected them, possibly due to the mixed reception of New Vegas and a preference for keeping franchises in-house.
• An Elder Scrolls spin-off by Obsidian could have provided additional adventures in the setting, explored complex stories and factions, and delved into alternate universes to show the consequences of villains winning.

It has been a long time since fans got a new mainline Elder Scrolls game. Spin-off mobile titles like Blades, Legends, and Castles have their charms, but don’t scratch the same itch, and even the massively successful Elder Scrolls: Online doesn’t offer the type of experience that fans of the single-player games want from the long-awaited Elder Scrolls 6.

It’s therefore not surprising that some fans might wonder about the possibility of a Fallout: New Vegas-style spin-off from another studio. New Vegas developer Obsidian had similar ideas, as Chris Avellone recently discussed on Twitter, though Bethesda rejected Obsidian’s pitches for Elder Scrolls spin-offs. In retrospect, it might have been best if Bethesda had taken Obsidian up on its offer.

Before discussing the potential perks of Obsidian developing an Elder Scrolls spin-off, it is worth looking at why Bethesda may have turned it down. Studio head Todd Howard has talked about third-party spin-offs before, repeatedly expressing Bethesda’s preference to keep its franchises in-house. While these questions were usually in response to Fallout, the answer is likely the same for The Elder Scrolls, which, unlike Fallout, was always a Bethesda property.

It’s also worth remembering that Obsidian Entertainment’s Fallout: New Vegas did not have the best release of any Fallout game. It was extremely buggy at launch, even by Bethesda standards, and the game was prone to crashes. Chris Avellone suspects that New Vegas‘ initially poor reception may have contributed to Bethesda declining Obsidion’s proposal for a long-term partnership.

New Vegas‘ writing also benefited from Obsidian’s familiarity with Fallout lore and borrowed many concepts from the canceled Van Buren version of Fallout 3. These factors gave New Vegas an advantage that an Elder Scrolls spin-off wouldn’t necessarily have.

That said, there are a few significant advantages that would have made a New Vegas-style spinoff worthwhile. Obviously, it would mean fans have an additional Elder Scrolls game to enjoy, reducing the gap between titles. More significantly, it opened the possibility of telling stories Bethesda isn’t interested in, but fans might be.

Long-time TES fans sometimes criticize the series writing on the grounds that it has gotten less complex with time. In 2016, Bethesda’s lead writer Emil Pagliarulo described his principle of “Keep it simple, stupid,” which he interprets to mean focusing on only one or two core themes. In that same talk, he also infamously suggested that Fallout 4 players aren’t interested in complex narratives in open-world games. However, many Elder Scrolls and Fallout players are interested in complex stories, even if Bethesda is not.

For example, Daggerfall‘s plot is somewhat similar to New Vegas in that it features multiple factions fighting over a single goal. Similarly, while they weren’t the story’s main focus, Morrowind featured several joinable factions with conflicting goals and ideals. While some fans hope Elder Scrolls 6 might feature something similar, it doesn’t seem like that is the kind of game Bethesda wants to make. However, a New Vegas-style spin-off could have delivered this kind of experience.

Obsidian’s Alternate Universe Elder Scrolls

Avellone didn’t list all of Obsidian’s Elder Scrolls pitches, though he indicated that there were more than one. However, he revealed that proposals included setting the games in alternate universes to avoid stepping on the toes of Bethesda’s canon. These pitches included games set in a timeline where the protagonist of a mainline Elder Scrolls game failed.

This would create an opportunity to explore these villains in greater depth and show how Tamriel’s society would adapt to their rule. Obsidian’s 2016 game Tyranny asked players to question what morality means in a world where evil has already won, so it’s easy to imagine the studio exploring similar themes in an Elder Scrolls spin-off. These alternate universes would also help to make the main games more compelling by giving the player a clearer idea of what happens if the villain wins.