Sony Made Console Version of Elder Scrolls Online Happen

[Steven Bogos]

Sony Made Console Version of Elder Scrolls Online Happen

The Elder Scrolls MMO was originally planned to be PC-only, until Sony pushed for a console version.

If you're planning on picking up Bethesda's new Elder Scrolls MMO: IGN [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/10388-Hands-On-The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Sucked-Me-In-Instantly] that the game "was never planned to come to console" until Sony pitched Bethesda on making the jump to the PlayStation 4.

"We just kept kind of sitting with them and being like, 'Well, why not?...Why don't you do this?'" explained Boyes, claiming that his insistence lead Bethesda to reconsider console version of the game. Boyes said that he actually pitched his own plan on how to bring the game to consoles, and Bethesda were willing to entertain him.

Boyes absolutely loves MMOs and The Elder Scrolls, and his enthusiasm for the game was so contagious that it wasn't long before all parties involved were on board. "Knowing that a game is coming to console that was never going to come to console, that's the kind of stuff that is like, 'Yes!' You know, hugely awesome," Boyes says.

The Elder Scrolls Online, was recently revealed to have a monthly subscription fee [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127057-The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Will-Have-Subscription-Fees], making it one of the very few MMOs, including Blizzard's World of Warcraft that charge a monthly fee on top of the cost of the base game.

Are you going to get into The Elder Scrolls Online, and if so, what will be your platform of choice? Personally, I can't really see myself playing an MMO on anything other than a PC anyway, but I'm sure some of you will jump at a PS4 or Xbox One version.

Source: IGN [http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/07/sony-pushed-for-the-elder-scrolls-online-to-come-to-consoles]

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[Dimitriov]

Considering how well the last Elder Scrolls game worked out on the PS3... this is actually kind of hilarious.

Anyway, for myself, if I play it at all, it will be on the PC.

 

[piinyouri]

Considering how well the last Elder Scrolls game worked out on the PS3... this is actually kind of hilarious.

Anyway, for myself, if I play it at all, it will be on the PC.

The problems and issues the games cause, for all platforms including PC, are because of the Gamebryo engine that Beth uses though.

If they (hopefully, dear god) got a new engine it has a chance of not having catastrophic failures that lead to crashes and data corruption. (Granted, it could still happen, but this time it wouldn't be Gamebryo's fault)

 

[Roxas1359]

snip

Skyrim still crashed a bit though, and it wasn't running the Gambryo engine like how Oblivion through New Vegas were. Although you are right that it was because of those engines that the games like Fallout 3 to crash more frequently.

Considering how well the last Elder Scrolls game worked out on the PS3... this is actually kind of hilarious.

Anyway, for myself, if I play it at all, it will be on the PC.

Any real problem at this point though would be on Bethesda and not because of Sony since the PS4 is has x86 on it. Of course this is Bethesda and even the PC versions get better patches from the modders themselves. >.>
Another thing is that the PS3 actually has a few MMOs already on it, and they run well with it. Of course Bethesda could still say that they were "having problems with the memory" like how they did for Skyrim on the PS3.

 

[piinyouri]

snip

Skyrim still crashed a bit though, and it wasn't running the Gambryo engine like how Oblivion through New Vegas were. Although you are right that it was because of those engines that the games like Fallout 3 to crash more frequently.

*frustrated growl to self*
How do I say this in a nice way...

I thought everyone had agreed for the most part that it was a altered, slightly more polished version of the Gamebryo engine, but at it's core, still the same one that ran the Fallouts and Oblivion.
I thought the people who believed it was a whole new engine were Bethesda.

I mean I'm obviously not a techie of any expertise in this area, but even in-game it feels like the Gamebryo engine, but as I said, much more polished. (But of course as the memory leaks, crashes and whatnot showed us, still broken)

 

[Roxas1359]

snip

Skyrim still crashed a bit though, and it wasn't running the Gambryo engine like how Oblivion through New Vegas were. Although you are right that it was because of those engines that the games like Fallout 3 to crash more frequently.

*frustrated growl to self*
How do I say this in a nice way...

Yeesh man, didn't mean to make you made or anything. In reality it is a more modified Gamebyro engine, but generally new game engines tend to build off from modified older ones. The Source Engine from Valve, it's a modified Gold Source Engine, and that engine is a modified Quake engine. The Skryim engine is called the "Creation Engine" and while it is modified from the Gamebryo, it's still considered a new engine.

 

[piinyouri]

snip

Skyrim still crashed a bit though, and it wasn't running the Gambryo engine like how Oblivion through New Vegas were. Although you are right that it was because of those engines that the games like Fallout 3 to crash more frequently.

*frustrated growl to self*
How do I say this in a nice way...

Yeesh man, didn't mean to make you made or anything. In reality it is a more modified Gamebyro engine, but generally new game engines tend to build off from modified older ones. The Source Engine from Valve, it's a modified Gold Source Engine, and that engine is a modified Quake engine. The Skryim engine is called the "Creation Engine" and while it is modified from the Gamebryo, it's still considered a new engine.

Oh no, I wasn't mad, just frustated at myself. I tried writing that four different times but it sounded too innately aggressive every time, so I was struggling to not come off sounding mean. Sorry if I failed.

Oh I didn't know that about the Source engine at all. That makes things make a little more sense.
: )

 

[Voulan]

I'm still not sure how exactly an MMO is going to work on consoles, but it's nice to see that it was done through enthusiasm to try, instead of money-grubbing.

Not that I'll get to try it anyway. Yep, I'm still upset about subscription fees.

 

[Vivid Kazumi]

hmm can they unmake it then?given that i hate the idea of sub based mmo's becoming trends on the console

 

[mysecondlife]

Sony should have tried harder to make Guild Wars 2 happen on console. I have no intention of playing ESO if its going for subscription fees.

 

[deadish]

Don't have high hopes for ESO, but it's good to see more MMOs other than Final Fantasy giving it a shot on consoles.

As for Bethesda track record with game engines ... They really need to find more competent programmers. There is no excuse for a AAA developer to release such buggy if not outright broken products. There are dozens of 3rd party engines out there to licensing, e.g. Unreal, Crytek, Idtech5 ... They have zero excuse.

 

[pandorum]

Soooo Sony does all the work but the shit box gets the game to? What bullshit.

 

[Jumwa]

Yeesh man, didn't mean to make you made or anything. In reality it is a more modified Gamebyro engine, but generally new game engines tend to build off from modified older ones. The Source Engine from Valve, it's a modified Gold Source Engine, and that engine is a modified Quake engine. The Skryim engine is called the "Creation Engine" and while it is modified from the Gamebryo, it's still considered a new engine.

Exactly. The fact of the matter is that the only people who really build a new engine from the ground-up anymore are indies who are making small games and can't afford to buy a license. Otherwise, all the "new engines" out there are at least in part based upon older engines.

It's the nature of things.

Also, ESO is not based on the Gamebryo engine at all, it uses the same engine basis as The Old Republic did, as I understand. There was never really any risk of it using gamebryo though, as the game's not even being made by the same Bethesda we all know. Bethesda's parent company, Zenimax, recruited a whole new development studio - made up mostly of old MMO designers who made the Dark Ages of Camelot games -- to make this MMO.

As for where I'll play ESO, I won't be playing it all. I love the Elder Scrolls, it's probably my favourite game series out there now, but the MMO lost my interest from the moment they announced it'd have a rigid faction system like WoW. Though if I were to play it, I couldn't imagine playing it anywhere but on a PC. Consoles and PCs are good at different game experiences, and MMOs are just one of those areas where consoles fall down, and in the past even designing a MMO for cross-platform play has resulted in a worse experience for PC players as a consequence.

As example, look to DCUO and it's terrible chat interface, thanks to being designed for headsets to accommodate console gamers. Similar issues I've heard for Defiance.

 

[Sectan]

I guess they're a brighter group of people than I am. How the hell do you make a PC MMO work on a console without tearing its guts out just for the UI control? In WoW I was using 1,2,3,4,5,6 Ctrl+123456 T,R,F Ctrl+ T,R,F and that doesn't include all of the hotkeys to open up your other windows for the other UI elements. I couldn't imagine doing that with the triggers, 4 buttons and a D pad. Also how large/small would the render distance be? MMOs are not small rooms and areas in cells. Add that to the amount of players you can get on a screen at one time and it's hell even for high end PCs.

This isn't a criticism. These are genuine questions I'm asking. Are people going to be required to buy kb/m setups to play on a console? If it worked that'd be awesome for consoles to get some MMO love, but it seems difficult.

 

[Tiamat666]

So if we get a shitty console port with bad controls, simplified gameplay and a shitty, oversized UI designed to be viewed from the couch, we have Sony to thank for it.

 

[Dragonbums]

I'm really confused about this news.

What do you mean it's thanks to Sony that the TESO is going to be on consoles?

I thought they said they were going to put it on all console platforms (except the Wii U) all the way back at E3 when they were interviewed?

Also inb4 shit console port.

 

[Colt47]

I like the fact another MMO is going to consoles, but I think game developers still haven't figured out how to make the controller based gameplay hold it's own against keyboard and mouse when handling communications and complex skill layouts. They got the controls right for general gameplay in Final Fantasy XIV, but it breaks down when doing dungeons in that game.

Hopefully, since it is elder scrolls, the combinations of possible skills a player needs to have access to at once is less then the typical Global Cooldown based game.

 

[Li Mu]

I guess they're a brighter group of people than I am. How the hell do you make a PC MMO work on a console without tearing its guts out just for the UI control? In WoW I was using 1,2,3,4,5,6 Ctrl+123456 T,R,F Ctrl+ T,R,F and that doesn't include all of the hotkeys to open up your other windows for the other UI elements. I couldn't imagine doing that with the triggers, 4 buttons and a D pad. Also how large/small would the render distance be? MMOs are not small rooms and areas in cells. Add that to the amount of players you can get on a screen at one time and it's hell even for high end PCs.

This isn't a criticism. These are genuine questions I'm asking. Are people going to be required to buy kb/m setups to play on a console? If it worked that'd be awesome for consoles to get some MMO love, but it seems difficult.

That's a good point. But assuming that they're really not trying to ape WoW, they may well make it more like Skyrim in terms of play style. In which case, you wont need all those keybindings.

 

[Doom972]

I'm sure that all those gamers who played Skyrim on the PS3 are rushing to preorder it as we speak.

Doesn't it use a WoW-like UI? I wonder how they'll make that work with console controls.