Bethesda is leaving money on the table (Spin-Offs)

[Vergil]

I don't understand why Bethesda doesn't use their IPs for more. TES hasn't had a major release since 2011 but there have been TES games since then. However, instead of things that mods for other video game properties have had to fill the niche in, spin offs have been exclusively ****** mobile game garbage.

Why is there no Elder Scrolls RTS? A Fallout city builder? Would a first/third person squad based shooter like Republic Commando as the Brotherhood of Steel not sell well? Instead of cramming these sorts of features into their main games in a half baked manner why not get some use out of IPs that they own and are not using?

Busy working on a mainline Fallout game? Have an Elder Scrolls Story being put out by a contracted dev in the meantime. The obvious comparison is New Vegas but these wouldn't be Bethesda style games with as big a potential risk in both quality (literally no one seems to be able to replicate the bethesda formula after decades of trying) and possibly competing with whatever Bethesda is working on.

So why not do this? At first I thought maybe it was about protecting the brand but after Elder Scrolls Blades, Fallout Shelter, the Fallout show and other silly cashgrab ******** I don't really buy into that argument anymore.

[Oyster Sauce]

If I was Todd Bethelsderscrolls I would have shifted focus into making Skyrim DLCs in perpetuity. There are still tens of thousands of active players just on Steam right now 15 years after release.

[rusty_shackleford]

To 98% of people, TES is just a generic fantasy setting with nothing special about it. If you know about the """DEEP LORE""", it's probably past time for you to take a shower so I'm going to remind you to do it.

[Xenich]

Now you know how I felt with the console market dictating everything in PC when it took over.

Sucks, doesn't it?

[Vergil]

If I was Todd Bethelsderscrolls I would have shifted focus into making Skyrim DLCs in perpetuity. There are still tens of thousands of active players just on Steam right now 15 years after release.

Creation Club could have been this if they didn't **** up in every conceivable way.

To 98% of people, TES is just a generic fantasy setting with nothing special about it.

There are videos and reddit posts will gorillions of normalfags talking about how important the series is and how it changed their life. It's a very big and popular brand up there with Warhammer or Lord of the Rings and there's no reason those can succeed in multiple mediums whilst TES couldn't.

[Vergil]

Now you know how I felt with the console market dictating everything in PC when it took over.

Sucks, doesn't it?

What?

[rusty_shackleford]

There are videos and reddit posts will gorillions of normalfags talking about how important the series is and how it changed their life.

every social media site is completely astroturfed, anything you see on there is artificially boosted.

[Xenich]

Now you know how I felt with the console market dictating everything in PC when it took over.

Sucks, doesn't it?

What?

" However, instead of things that mods for other video game properties have had to fill the niche in, spin offs have been exclusively ****** mobile game garbage."

Mobiles are priority... they are what makes the money, they are what is important. They drive the market, just like console did in the 2000+ when PC games began to be made FIRST on console and then ported to PC (with all their design constraints, styles, and directions).

[CSM-101]

I don't understand why Bethesda doesn't use their IPs for more. TES hasn't had a major release since 2011 but there have been TES games since then. However, instead of things that mods for other video game properties have had to fill the niche in, spin offs have been exclusively ****** mobile game garbage.

Why is there no Elder Scrolls RTS? A Fallout city builder? Would a first/third person squad based shooter like Republic Commando as the Brotherhood of Steel not sell well? Instead of cramming these sorts of features into their main games in a half baked manner why not get some use out of IPs that they own and are not using?

Busy working on a mainline Fallout game? Have an Elder Scrolls Story being put out by a contracted dev in the meantime. The obvious comparison is New Vegas but these wouldn't be Bethesda style games with as big a potential risk in both quality (literally no one seems to be able to replicate the bethesda formula after decades of trying) and possibly competing with whatever Bethesda is working on.

So why not do this? At first I thought maybe it was about protecting the brand but after Elder Scrolls Blades, Fallout Shelter, the Fallout show and other silly cashgrab ******** I don't really buy into that argument anymore.

I would buy a decent remake or remaster of Arena and Daggerfall right now if one existed and all that was changed was visuals and gameplay. A modern (not Unity) Daggerfall is something I've wanted for awhile.

[Vergil]

Mobiles are priority... the are what makes the money, they are what is important. They drive the market, just like console did in the 2000+ when PC games began to be made FIRST on console and the ported to PC (with all their design constraints, styles, and directions).

Noted big mobile release Starfield

[Xenich]

Mobiles are priority... the are what makes the money, they are what is important. They drive the market, just like console did in the 2000+ when PC games began to be made FIRST on console and the ported to PC (with all their design constraints, styles, and directions).

Noted big mobile release Starfield

NM, it would take too many words to explain to you and you don't have the attention span.

[Vergil]

Mobiles are priority... the are what makes the money, they are what is important. They drive the market, just like console did in the 2000+ when PC games began to be made FIRST on console and the ported to PC (with all their design constraints, styles, and directions).

Noted big mobile release Starfield

NM, it would take too many words to explain to you and you don't have the attention span.

No... please... don't go...

[maidenhaver]

There are videos and reddit posts will gorillions of normalfags talking about how important the series is and how it changed their life.

every social media site is completely astroturfed, anything you see on there is artificially boosted.

Doesn't have anything to do with op, and the steam and nexus stats for Skyrim speak for themselves.

[rusty_shackleford]

There are videos and reddit posts will gorillions of normalfags talking about how important the series is and how it changed their life.

every social media site is completely astroturfed, anything you see on there is artificially boosted.

Doesn't have anything to do with op, and the steam and nexus stats for Skyrim speak for themselves.

Skyrim is one of the most generic fantasy games that exists. It has no identifiable traits unique to it that the average player would actually associate with it.

[maidenhaver]

every social media site is completely astroturfed, anything you see on there is artificially boosted.

Doesn't have anything to do with op, and the steam and nexus stats for Skyrim speak for themselves.

Skyrim is one of the most generic fantasy games that exists. It has no identifiable traits unique to it that the average player would actually associate with it.

Yeah, so why aren't there new dlcs every year?

[rusty_shackleford]

Doesn't have anything to do with op, and the steam and nexus stats for Skyrim speak for themselves.

Skyrim is one of the most generic fantasy games that exists. It has no identifiable traits unique to it that the average player would actually associate with it.

Yeah, so why aren't there new dlcs every year?

There are.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Creation_Club
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_Mod:Verified_Creations

[maidenhaver]

Ok, outsourcing to modders, but what about the rest of the op? Why wouldn't Bethesda have a dedicated team making spin-offs? Do they just suck at feeling the market? They were a big studio publisher, with some decent IPs.

[rusty_shackleford]

Ok, outsourcing to modders, but what about the rest of the op? Why wouldn't Bethesda have a dedicated team making spin-offs? Do they just suck at feeling the market? They were a big studio publisher, with some decent IPs.

Have you seen Starfield?
Todd probably wouldn't trust them with replacing the toilet paper at this point.

[Vergil]

Why wouldn't Bethesda have a dedicated team making spin-offs?

I don't think they would even need to go that far honestly. Like I said contract it out to other devs so you don't have to worry about diverting resources to it at all.

[Oyster Sauce]

Kind of ****** up that every IP I like doesn't have tons of good games coming out constantly. Is every company somehow overlooking this?

[maidenhaver]

Ok, outsourcing to modders, but what about the rest of the op? Why wouldn't Bethesda have a dedicated team making spin-offs? Do they just suck at feeling the market? They were a big studio publisher, with some decent IPs.

Have you seen Starfield?
Todd probably wouldn't trust them with replacing the toilet paper at this point.

All the more reason to start small teams that get **** out there, under names people recognize, instead of putting everybody on Starfield.

[Vergil]

Kind of ****** up that every IP I like doesn't have tons of good games coming out constantly. Is every company somehow overlooking this?

it's less I'm appalled that they don't make spin offs and more they do make spin offs but only the lamest **** imaginable.

[Oyster Sauce]

Kind of ****** up that every IP I like doesn't have tons of good games coming out constantly. Is every company somehow overlooking this?

it's less I'm appalled that they don't make spin offs and more they do make spin offs but only the lamest **** imaginable.

Isn't Fallout Shelter the most profitable game they've ever made?

[maidenhaver]

Why wouldn't Bethesda have a dedicated team making spin-offs?

I don't think they would even need to go that far honestly. Like I said contract it out to other devs so you don't have to worry about diverting resources to it at all.

I'm curious if Obsidian were the only studio that came to Bethsoft with spin-off ideas, and what might have been.

[CSM-101]

Kind of ****** up that every IP I like doesn't have tons of good games coming out constantly. Is every company somehow overlooking this?

it's less I'm appalled that they don't make spin offs and more they do make spin offs but only the lamest **** imaginable.

Isn't Fallout Shelter the most profitable game they've ever made?

I honestly wouldn't be surprised. That game is only interesting for a couple days.

[gerey]

Why is there no Elder Scrolls RTS? A Fallout city builder?

Bethesda already struggles making inferior copies of a game they released nearly 25 years ago.

Can you imagine them attempting to make something else?

[Vergil]

Can you imagine them attempting to make something else?

Busy working on a mainline Fallout game? Have an Elder Scrolls Story being put out by a contracted dev in the meantime. The obvious comparison is New Vegas but these wouldn't be Bethesda style games with as big a potential risk in both quality (literally no one seems to be able to replicate the bethesda formula after decades of trying) and possibly competing with whatever Bethesda is working on.

[Nooneatall]

Kind of ****** up that every IP I like doesn't have tons of good games coming out constantly. Is every company somehow overlooking this?

Why would they make a good game when they can make a game about black trannys that is 90% cutscenes instead?

[gerey]

Busy working on a mainline Fallout game? Have an Elder Scrolls Story being put out by a contracted dev in the meantime. The obvious comparison is New Vegas but these wouldn't be Bethesda style games with as big a potential risk in both quality (literally no one seems to be able to replicate the bethesda formula after decades of trying) and possibly competing with whatever Bethesda is working on.

This might be me reaching, but I always had this theory that New Vegas spooked Bethesda so badly they actively refuse to allow any other studio to make a cRPG based on their IPs for fear of being humiliated. They could, very easily, have contracted Obsidian to make a "New Vegas" for Fallout 4, or opened up a studio in some East European country like CA did to churn out spinoffs on a smaller scale, but they don't, and the likely answer as to why is their bruised egos.

As for why no one is making games similar to that of Bethesda, it's because setting up the pipeline and tools necessary would require far too much investment for a questionable payoff. For a competitor to a Bethesda game you'd need the infrastructure in place to quickly create and populate interiors for nearly every building, hundreds of NPCs with schedules, dozens of quests and side quests.

None of the big studios are all that interested in making an effort when there's far more profitable ventures that require less commitment, while smaller indie studios that could take the risk lack the necessary resources to make such a game.

[Vergil]

Busy working on a mainline Fallout game? Have an Elder Scrolls Story being put out by a contracted dev in the meantime. The obvious comparison is New Vegas but these wouldn't be Bethesda style games with as big a potential risk in both quality (literally no one seems to be able to replicate the bethesda formula after decades of trying) and possibly competing with whatever Bethesda is working on.

This might be me reaching, but I always had this theory that New Vegas spooked Bethesda so badly they actively refuse to allow any other studio to make a cRPG based on their IPs for fear of being humiliated. They could, very easily, have contracted Obsidian to make a "New Vegas" for Fallout 4, or opened up a studio in some East European country like CA did to churn out spinoffs on a smaller scale, but they don't, and the likely answer as to why is their bruised egos.

As for why no one is making games similar to that of Bethesda, it's because setting up the pipeline and tools necessary would require far too much investment for a questionable payoff. For a competitor to a Bethesda game you'd need the infrastructure in place to quickly create and populate interiors for nearly every building, hundreds of NPCs with schedules, dozens of quests and side quests.

None of the big studios are all that interested in making an effort when there's far more profitable ventures that require less commitment, while smaller indie studios that could take the risk lack the necessary resources to make such a game.

This is great and all but this thread is explicitly about other studios making spin offs in other genres as explained in the text you just quoted