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Elder Scrolls IV Delayed
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."
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.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
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.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
It's being delayed into oblivion?
Didn't Duke Nukem Forever already have a patent on that?
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
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.
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 computers will play it too and be upgradable.
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 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 that Oblivion would be ready for the holidays.
Does anyone have more insight into whether these rumors might be true?
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 with the delay (especially as they don't port their games to OS X, so the console versions have been useful to me). I'm not sure of any "must buys" coming out for that system - but then again, neither does the PS3 or the Revolution have a "buy me now" attached to them so far.
I'm starting to wonder if gamers are now realizing that you have to wait six months before consoles become useful - and what that will mean for console manufacturers.
Of course, this is all just my opinion. I could be wrong.
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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 spent $500 upgrading my PC mostly in anticipation this game.
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 as far as I know.
Speaking of the PC version of Oblivion, when is it supposed to be released? Is Take Two publishing it as well?
Lastly, I've probably mentioned this before, but despite being a long-time fan of Bethesda and TES (I've spent a lot of time playing Arena, Dagerfall, Morrowind and even Battlespire over the years), my primary interest in seeing Oblivion released is that it will clear the way for Bethesda to finish Fallout 3.
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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
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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.
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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 a few more months to get it right and not deliver another empty shell, I can wait.
...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 obviously skimped on content or complex controls in order to be a viable console game.
I yearn for you tragically. A. T. Tappman, Chaplain, U.S. Army.
Beyond that it was teh suck -- unless your idea of good gameplay is Nethack style "conducts" (You can easily replace "No Wishes" or "Vegetarian" or whatever with "No Alchemy" and "No Custom Spells" -- but since pretty much every skill line is busted relative to the difficulty of the game's content...)
*shrug* Great concept, horrid implementation.