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Games Entertainment

Elder Scrolls IV Delayed 46

Posted by Zonk from the zonk-sad dept.
Gamespot reports that the much anticipated (by me, at least) Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is delayed until 2006. From the article: "In a conference call with analysts today, Take-Two Interactive announced that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is being delayed until the second quarter of its next fiscal year, which runs from February to April 2006. While this is still technically within Microsoft's 14-week "launch window" for the Xbox 360, it means that the game will not be on sale when the console arrives in stores on November 22."
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Elder Scrolls IV Delayed More

Elder Scrolls IV Delayed

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  • Any desire I had to pick up an X-Box 360 anywhere near launch just evaporated completely.

    As cool as the tech is, and as nice as the system will look hooked to my HD set, there just isn't another launch game that I really want all that badly.
    • I'll have to second that. Now I don't have to worry about getting reamed by those damn package deals and "extended warranties."
    • Why bother getting an XBox360 to play it when you can have the (presumably infinitely moddable) PC version instead?
      • Actually, I'll probably buy both. My gaming capable PC isn't anywhere near the big TV though, and my HTPC doesn't have the horsepower. I really enjoy playing on a 43" screen from my easy chair.

        Also, I would buy the console eventually, because there are more games coming out that I'm interested in. A bunch of sports sims (yawn) and Quake 4 (that one I wouldn't play on a console) don't make a compelling case for me to pick the console up at launch, however.

  • No problem, make sure it's good and bug-free. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sgant ( 178166 ) on Tuesday November 01, 2005 @04:42PM (#13926263) Homepage Journal
    But of course, I'm sure people will come out of the woodwork with the "They lied to us! I'll never trust them again!" rant they always do when a game is delayed. Why? I have no idea. I feel sorry for game companies because they're screwed no matter what. If they release a game on time and if there wasn't enough time to totally squash the bugs, people will totally complain about it and cry and bitch and moan about how blah-blah sucks and how dare they release a game that's buggy and we would have waited for them to fix it. Now, that they're taking time to fix it and make it right I'm wondering how many people will cry and bitch and moan about THAT?

    They were even damned on some message boards for announcing this title! "Should fix Elder Scrolls 3 before you start another one!" some of the posts said. I swear to god, there's no pleasing anyone in the game community.
    • Exactly. The only way I'd be upset about this is if I had been foolish enough to pre-order a console bundle based on this game being available. Thankfully, I did not, and I can now wait until either this game, or another I care about is released for the XBox 369 before I shell out money for one.

      I would much rather the game work right out of the box then go through some of the game-save breaking patches that Elder Scrolls 3 had.
    • Instead of keeping their progress on the game development a big secret, they should just be open about where they are at on it. No surprises, no rants.
    • Game makers are not automatically screwed, you forgot one option:

      .........Late....On time....
      Bugs.....Damned..Damned.....
      No bugs..Damned..Not damned.


      All they have to do is learn to set realistic schedules, then add an extra 10% so they can test it twice. Or not announce release dates until they go gold.
    • After getting Morrowind the day it came out, I am very glad to hear they are holding back. Morrowind was one of the best/worst games I have ever played. It is the sort of game that had so much potential and possibility, but was so terribly flawed due to its lack of content, shitty shitty shitty combat engine, and bugs up the ass. It was like seeing an unfinished masterpiece.

      I am excited for Oblivion, as I really hope that they took all that potential that Morrowind had and ran with it. If it takes them
    • I feel sorry for game companies because they're screwed no matter what

      Companies take a calculated risk when announcing games. The more they talk about a game, including the release date, the more sales they'll be able to drum up- and of course everyone knows software projects are very difficult to schedule around. They could keep the games complete secrets until release day but then nobody will have heard of it, and if they promise an exact day or week or season too far in advance then potential customer
  • It's being delayed into oblivion?

    Didn't Duke Nukem Forever already have a patent on that?
  • This is very disapointing, but I recommend anyone who does not have Morrowind to go pick up now. The PC version is best, because you can go get endless mods for it.
    • And make sure it's the Game of the Year Edition, that way you get both expansion packs. You can get it cheap too, since it's usually shelved with the budget titles (guess that makes it budget too...). Anyway, stupidly high number of playing hours in Morrowind even without the expansions. With them.....well Oblivion might still be out too soon for you.
  • needs to rethink their priority. Let's be honest. Morrowind for the Xbox? flawed, and no add ons. Morrowind for PC? tons of mods, the fixes came out in about 1 month, and the mods really upped the replays.

    Honestly Grab it for the PC, but I'm so freaking pissed it's delayed because that is one of the great single player RPGs for the PC.

    They say they'll have stuff for Xbox 360 that is downloadable, but come on? Microsoft approved Downloads? also requiring Live and a harddrive? I'm sure most decent computer

  • Corporate rumors (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Tuesday November 01, 2005 @05:00PM (#13926438)
    One rumor on the official message board (not linked because it's already about to collapse under increased usage) is that TTWO is postponing Oblivion so they'll have a game release during 1Q 2006 to make the books look better. They already warned [marketwatch.com] on earnings for the rest of 2005 and 2006, and several of their other titles have been delayed as well, so any manipulation of release dates to even out revenues quarter-by-quarter is probably on the table. It's interesting that this news arrives from TTWO during a conference call and not from the developer, Bethesda Softworks.

    Some are suggesting that Bethesda will try to drop TTWO as publisher (they did just fine by themselves with Morrowind) because the game is pretty much ready for release.

    However, these are just rumors. The last word from Bethesda was apparently October 13, when Peter Hines, a Bethesda marketing VP, said [ign.com] that Oblivion would be ready for the holidays.

    Does anyone have more insight into whether these rumors might be true?

    • Kudos to both companies.

      I'm already picking one an xbox360 up on Nov22, and I'm glad that they are pushing back games rather than releasing them unfinished.

      This will help everyone involved in the long run.
    • I find that rumor hard to believe. What its saying is that we would rather miss the best selling season of the year (December Holidays), miss the concurrent launch with the platform in order to maybe increase earnings in the next fiscal year? Seems a bit farfetched. Earning a dollar now is better than later especially since you may sell less since you missed the holidays and the launch excitement.
  • Probably not - from what we've been hearing, there may be an inventory shortage to being with, so all of the first adapters (and those who just want to bu one to sell on eBay - not that I'm considering that *cough*) will allow Microsoft to do a "We sold out because we rock!" (the same way that Nokia claimed with the original N-gage - granted, the 360 is cooler, but ....)

    Anyway - if if I had planned on picking up an Xbox 360 anytime soon, I'm pretty certain to wait until Morrowind IV is fully available now w
  • I wonder if this is because they're still busy making the game run well on the Xbox 360 with no hard drive?

    If they are, then it sucks for all of us who'd rather play it on the PC and now have to wait so they can get whatever bounty Microsoft paid to them to get a simultanious release. It *really* sucks for all the people who pre-ordered a 360 in an Oblivion bundle and are now going to have it swapped out with some other non-RPG title that they probably weren't interested in.

    Either way, I hope they hurry. I
    • Either way, I hope they hurry. I spent $500 upgrading my PC mostly in anticipation this game.

      Christ, same here. I'm not saying that was the only driving force, but it was a big influence.
      • Yup. Me too. I upgrade and wait... And wait...
      • Silly guys :P
        1) Wait till the last week before the release, knowing the game went gold.
        2) Read "recommended setup" from the final version of the Readme.
        3) Buy the recommended hardware for 1/4 the price you would pay now.
        4) Be sure that your year-old upgrades of hardware for Oblivion aren't obsolete already, and that the game will run smoothly on what you buy.

        Bethesda is known from their deadline slipping. Don't count on 2nd quarter 2006. Hope for christmas 2006. Realistically count summer 2007. For now, jus
  • As others have stated, Bethesda's release of TES games on consoles is little more than a cash-cow attempt to generate extra income. I have no problem with this, but at the same time I have to strongly recommend that people pick up the PC versions of their games instead. The TES series has a long history of being notoriously buggy (and justifiably so due to the large yet intricate worlds that Bethesda crafts in them), and of course with Morrowind they released expansion packs which were not available on XBox
    • "...and of course with Morrowind they released expansion packs which were not available on XBox as far as I know."

      The expansions were released on XBox in the form of the Game of the Year edition, which was a compilation of Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon. So, XBox owners had an option, if they were willing to pay for the game all over again.

      I, too, would recommend buying PC versions of TES games, due to the massive extent they can be modified. Nearly infinite replay value just from mods alone, an
      • It is also worthy to note that the Xbox GOTY version of Morrowind included all the current bug fixes before it went to manufacturing.
        • No - it was missing out on a lot of the work done to the Journal if nothing else.
          • No - the journal work was done with Tribunal (v1.3) and the Xbox version had Tribunal and Bloodmoon (v1.6).

            The proof is that you could convert your Morrowind save file to Morrowind GOTY on the Xbox, but you couldnt re-open that file with regular Morrowind, because it had converted the Journal (that's what the one-time long-ass progress bar was for).

            • Not really - the format has changed, the bugs not so much. The journal was made more useful, with quests and sorting, but still you could stumble upon some wrong person at a wrong time and occasionally get an entry from the middle of some far, random quest you never started.

  • Call my Broker (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Puhase ( 911920 )
    If you own stock in Take Two, its sell-time folks. 4th quarter profit #'s are what drive the prices, no matter the reasonable decisions that cause those numbers to drop. They may have a better than expected 2nd quarter, but they are going to take it in the deuce for 4th and 1st quarter. So yea, bad news for them, and us =p

  • No problem with it being delayed... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sathias ( 884801 ) on Tuesday November 01, 2005 @07:55PM (#13928145)
    I have no problem with it being delayed, they want the game to be up to the standard they are happy with and good on them for not releasing a buggy title (this time)

    I do have a problem with the way they have handled their PR. Any thread talking about the release date gets locked on their forums, and they continually point to their FAQ which has about 12 questions in it, is hardly updated, and only lists the release date as "Holidays 2005", with an explanation that unless it is posted on the Bethesda site it isn't official.

    Now their publishing partner has blown the lid off it and they have stopped locking the threads, seeming to be a de-facto admission that maybe this information that isn't on their site is correct. However since then the silence has been deafening, several Bethesda employees have been lurking the boards without saying a word, and just letting the endless speculation continue with no official word.

    Not smart PR IMO.
  • ...As long as the PC version is on time.

    I don't understand why anyone would want to play a game like Morrowind on the Xbox. It seems to me to be tailor-made for PC, especially given the huge amount of content.

    Of course, I say this based on Morrowind, not Oblivion. I really hope they haven't compromised the PC version to make a better console game, like some games. I hate it when I buy a PC game only to find out it was meant to be played with a controller, has save points instead of free saves, and obvious

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