Mill o’ Rumour: Elder Scrolls MMO in the works?
You may not have heard, but Bethesda Softworks recently created a new MMORPG studio, entitled ZeniMax Online. You know what else is shocking? This MMORPG studio founded under my nose by my #2 favorite developer of all time has already come up with $300 million worth of funding for its MMO venture. Hell, Bethesda (through ZeniMax) even owns the URL for “elderscrollsonline.com”.
So, the URL address means that there WILL be an Elder Scrolls MMO, right? According to Peter Hines in a statement to Gamespot, not really.
We are tired of people squatting on domains related to our games or simply not being able to get them if we needed them and decided a while back we’d get these to keep it from happening again… People are grabbing domains like these and trying to extract money from us for them, or using them for some other purpose.
You know, I have to believe Hines on that one. It makes perfect sense from a business standpoint. After all, if you were to develop an Elder Scrolls MMO down the road, you’d want “Elder Scrolls Online” as the URL. It just makes financial sense.
But let me throw another theory out there for the rumor mill: Bethesda is working on the Star Trek MMO. Allow me to explain.
It was recently reported by our main man in the online land at Gaming MMO that Perpetual Entertainment, who has been tasked with developing Star Trek Online, has put their other MMORPG, Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising on hold. Most would think the logical thing and assume that this was so they could focus all their energy on the game 40 years in the making. However, I’ll argue for the sake of argument that this delay is a sign that Perpetual Entertainment may be in a bad spot financially. If they closed down, Bethesda (who owns all other Star Trek licensing) would naturally be the choice to turn to.
Not saying that is the case. Not at all… but anything is possible, right?
Bethesda Softworks, The Elder Scrolls, ZeniMax Online, Star Trek, Star Trek Online, Prepetual Entertainment
November 8th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
[...] confirmed that Bethesda Softworks is, in fact, working on an Elder Scrolls MMORPG. The rumor was reported last week after the discovery that Bethesda had founded ZeniMax Online, and reportedly had handed over $300 [...]