Morrowind Remaster Not Going to Happen, Says Bethesda

[Steven Bogos]

Morrowind Remaster Not Going to Happen, Says Bethesda

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While a Skyrim remaster looks pretty likely, Bethesda's Pete Hines says that there's no way Morrowind will get the same treatment.

Something that we are fairly confident Bethesda will show at E3 this year is a Skyrim remaster [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167633-Bethesda-Reportedly-Showing-Skyrim-Remaster-Prey-2-Wolfenstein-2-and-More-at-E3], packaging all of the game's DLC and mod support into a package for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Naturally, this got people's hopes up about earlier Elder Scrolls games, particularly Morrowind, which holds a special place in fans' hearts.

However, speaking to GamesRadar [http://www.gamesradar.com/a-skyrim-remaster-might-be-on-the-way-but-heres-why-bethesda-will-never-do-morrowind-hd/], Bethesda's Pete Hines makes it clear that Morrowind won't ever be getting the HD treatment.

"To take Morrowind and then to completely rebuild it? It was an Xbox game. To completely rebuild it have it be relevant for today? That's a pretty massive team doing a massive amount of work," he explained. "You go back and look at it. Do you remember the dialogue system in Morrowind? Do you remember what it was like talking to someone and scrolling through this long list of questions. You put that out for someone that just finished Skyrim and they're going to be like 'What in the hell...?'"

"Those great games are great for what they were but I don't know if we're ever going to spend time going back to old stuff and saying 'okay here it is now on this console exactly like it was'" he concluded.

Basically, remastering anything older than the Xbox 360/PS3 generation would simply require way too much work to be worth it. Perhaps an Oblivion sequel would be more likely?

If you need a Morrowind fix though, maybe you should check out Skywind [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119724-Skywind-Mod-Jams-Morrowind-Into-Skyrim]?

Source: GamesRadar [http://www.gamesradar.com/a-skyrim-remaster-might-be-on-the-way-but-heres-why-bethesda-will-never-do-morrowind-hd/]

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[Fappy]

Morrowind Overhaul was created for a reason. I like Bethesda, but most Morrowind fans would not trust them to do the original justice anyway.

 

[MatthewTheDark]

Shame. Though maybe its for the best considering how dumbed down recent fare has been. Not bad, mind you, but Morrowind was a much more complex game than Skyrim was so I'm not sure a remaster is possible in the current age.

 

[RedRockRun]

I trust the Skywind team more than Bethesda as it is. Plus, Bethesda can't afford to divert resources away from TES VI and its FPS mechanics, complete with QTE's.

 

[springheeljack]

It would be nice if they would officially sponser the Skywind team regardless the project looks amazing so far

 

[vallorn]

Do Bethesda just hate money? Morrowind is their best acclaimed game ever and a remake of it would make Fallout 4's sales look like a paddling pool compared to the ocean of $$$ they would get.

"To take Morrowind and then to completely rebuild it? It was an Xbox game. To completely rebuild it have it be relevant for today? That's a pretty massive team doing a massive amount of work," he explained. "You go back and look at it.

Translation. "We're lazy and redoing a game that was famous for detail makes us sad"

Do you remember the dialogue system in Morrowind? Do you remember what it was like talking to someone and scrolling through this long list of questions. You put that out for someone that just finished Skyrim and they're going to be like 'What in the hell...?'"

Translation. "We think people are thick and can't understand more than 4 dialogue options"

 

[Elfgore]

snip

Wut? Skyrim outclasses Morrowind in both sales and reviews by a long shot. And outsell Fallout 4? Bro... come on. A Morrowind remake is something only a very small market of fans want, not the massive audience Bethesda now has.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I know its an unpopular opinion, but I always found Morrowind to be the least...cohesive game in the series. Like it was never clear where you were supposed to go, what to do, who to talk to, or how to do anything. I think I was level 25 or so before I realized there was a plot. First time playing I honestly just thought it was an open-ended Fantasy game where I just wondered around desperately trying to find any monster I could shank. Like being in a MMORPG zone that's just shy of too high for you, where you could with a little luck take on one or two monsters as long as you draw them away from their fellows.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Shame. Though maybe its for the best considering how dumbed down recent fare has been. Not bad, mind you, but Morrowind was a much more complex game than Skyrim was so I'm not sure a remaster is possible in the current age.

I always find it funny how Bethesda has been making their games more streamlined but still insist they're the hardcore nerd crowd. It's like watching a forty-something pretend he's still in a frathouse. Oh well, that's what the Skywind mod is for.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

...yeah, makes sense. That's a LOT of shit to straight up rebuild given the age of the game, and it's... well, for polite terms I'll call it 'complexity' doesn't translate well into modern markets where people want their games to actually work be coherent be a more concise fair.

So, lot of work for something that doesn't fit modern markets and is something only a small group really seem to be clamoring for? Totally get why they're not doing it.

 

[Baresark]

It's amazing... the Remaster on PC sounds exactly like the Legendary edition. I have my doubts about them "remastering" it better than some of the graphic mods out there.

Also... I hate remasters... especially of games that aren't that old.

OT: Yeah, they wouldn't remake Morrowind when they can devote almost no time, money, and talent to the Skyrim Remaster and make a ton of money.

 

[vallorn]

snip

Wut? Skyrim outclasses Morrowind in both sales and reviews by a long shot. And outsell Fallout 4? Bro... come on. A Morrowind remake is something only a very small market of fans want, not the massive audience Bethesda now has.

I'm going to ask if those figures account for the entire gaming industry growing over the years and reviews suffering from inflation also. Plus by that point they had a marketing campaign.

Fallout 4 was only popular because of hype, as a Bethesda title it's the least inspired and most derivative game of the entire series, a box ticking exercise of what takes no effort to put in the game and can be sold as a gimmick.

 

[direkiller]

It's amazing... the Remaster on PC sounds exactly like the Legendary edition. I have my doubts about them "remastering" it better than some of the graphic mods out there.

Also... I hate remasters... especially of games that aren't that old.

OT: Yeah, they wouldn't remake Morrowind when they can devote almost no time, money, and talent to the Skyrim Remaster and make a ton of money.

If they give it SLI/crossfire support pc players would go crazy for it but, as Bethesda has never done this I will not get my hopes up.

 

[Elfgore]

I'm going to ask if those figures account for the entire gaming industry growing over the years and reviews suffering from inflation also. Plus by that point they had a marketing campaign.

Fallout 4 was only popular because of hype, as a Bethesda title it's the least inspired and most derivative game of the entire series, a box ticking exercise of what takes no effort to put in the game and can be sold as a gimmick.

Nope. But I don't think that matters too much when the most I can find Morrowind selling is around 2 million and Skyrim being in 20 million. That's an insane gap. I'm afraid I never heard of "review inflation", but I'm guessing it might have to do with the amount of reviews? Even if you cut the best Skyrim reviews on the wikipedia page to put it in the same amount as Morrowinds. Which didn't get a single 10/10 review, Skyrim creams it. It's quite clear remaking Skyrim would be much more profitable than Morrowind.

Never said Fallout 4 was a good game, I agree it's total shit and was over-hyped. Doesn't change that it sold like hot cakes. 1.2 million sales day one with digital on Steam and an estimated 12 million shipped, though how many of those sold I can't find.

 

[EHKOS]

So what they're saying is they have decided not to print money.

"...it was an Xbox game..."

You dense mother...it was for PC too, you even had the dev console you idgit. Why remake a last gen game when you can go back and introduce thousands to a masterpiece lost to compatibility issues and pointy polygons?! Yeah, the dialogue sucked, the combat sucked, the graphics, by today's standards suck. That seems like it would be a candidate for a remaster.

How many smart people are actually in positions of decision making in business? I feel like we could play Liar's Dice with the number.

 

[Xeorm]

I know its an unpopular opinion, but I always found Morrowind to be the least...cohesive game in the series. Like it was never clear where you were supposed to go, what to do, who to talk to, or how to do anything. I think I was level 25 or so before I realized there was a plot. First time playing I honestly just thought it was an open-ended Fantasy game where I just wondered around desperately trying to find any monster I could shank. Like being in a MMORPG zone that's just shy of too high for you, where you could with a little luck take on one or two monsters as long as you draw them away from their fellows.

No, I'd agree completely as well. Morrowind was a good game, well built for what it did, and it appealed plenty to the people that will go on sites like these and talk about their experiences. It was a dense game, and that appeals to this demographic.

However, it wasn't built for a more mass-appeal crowd. Chances are actually pretty good that a redo of the game wouldn't make back nearly as much money as people think, and the code behind the game is likely old enough that a simple graphics update wouldn't suffice. There's a lot more to remastering a game than just drawing prettier pictures and making new models. I don't see a remaster happening unless there's something else to go with it, similar to the Homeworld remaster.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

So what they're saying is they have decided not to print money.

"...it was an Xbox game..."

You dense mother...it was for PC too, you even had the dev console you idgit. Why remake a last gen game when you can go back and introduce thousands to a masterpiece lost to compatibility issues and pointy polygons?! Yeah, the dialogue sucked, the combat sucked, the graphics, by today's standards suck. That seems like it would be a candidate for a remaster.

How many smart people are actually in positions of decision making in business? I feel like we could play Liar's Dice with the number.

You misunderstand.
They want to make money without effort.
That's why their games feature more and more repeating non-content.

OP: I'll accept a remastered oblivion or fallout: new vegas. And maybe Skyrim if they make the factions and side quests actually decent, but that'd require effort.
Also Pete Hines really rubs me the wrong way.

 

[vallorn]

I'm going to ask if those figures account for the entire gaming industry growing over the years and reviews suffering from inflation also. Plus by that point they had a marketing campaign.

Fallout 4 was only popular because of hype, as a Bethesda title it's the least inspired and most derivative game of the entire series, a box ticking exercise of what takes no effort to put in the game and can be sold as a gimmick.

Nope. But I don't think that matters too much when the most I can find Morrowind selling is around 2 million and Skyrim being in 20 million. That's an insane gap. I'm afraid I never heard of "review inflation", but I'm guessing it might have to do with the amount of reviews? Even if you cut the best Skyrim reviews on the wikipedia page to put it in the same amount as Morrowinds. Which didn't get a single 10/10 review, Skyrim creams it. It's quite clear remaking Skyrim would be much more profitable than Morrowind.

Never said Fallout 4 was a good game, I agree it's total shit and was over-hyped. Doesn't change that it sold like hot cakes. 1.2 million sales day one with digital on Steam and an estimated 12 million shipped, though how many of those sold I can't find.

That's not out of the ballpark for inflation. Oblivion has sold about 9.5 million copies so it's not like the series suddenly spiked in popularity with Skyrim.

By review inflation I meant the trend in reviews that has seen scores of 7 being "Average", over the years review scores have been pushed towards the higher end of the scale which makes it difficult to compare review scores over the years. (Also, review scores are not perfect, look up Play magazine's Sonic '06 review at some point for the best example of this)

Also looking at Morrowind's scores, it got two 10/10 scores so I'm not sure where you are getting your figures from: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-elder-scrolls-iii-morrowind
Further on this topic, Bethesda themselves give a figure of "more than four million units" sold for Morrowind: http://web.archive.org/web/20100710090443/http://www.elderscrolls.com/news/press_081705.htm

 

[Xan Krieger]

So what they're saying is they have decided not to print money.

"...it was an Xbox game..."

You dense mother...it was for PC too, you even had the dev console you idgit. Why remake a last gen game when you can go back and introduce thousands to a masterpiece lost to compatibility issues and pointy polygons?! Yeah, the dialogue sucked, the combat sucked, the graphics, by today's standards suck. That seems like it would be a candidate for a remaster.

How many smart people are actually in positions of decision making in business? I feel like we could play Liar's Dice with the number.

The great and awesome Jim Sterling did a Jimquisition in which he pointed out that the executives have no idea what people want. He pointed out how the new Battlefield game almost didn't happen because they thought people were too stupid to know there were world wars. It's usually not till indie games address the wants of consumers that the top executives finally come around to it and by then the games they make are late to the party.

OT: I have Morrowind on PC, even played it long ago on PC and xbox and all it really needed was an updated combat system (swings claymore long enough to hit everyone in the room, misses over and over and over and *ragequit*).

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

I can completely understand why they're doing this, this is a no win situation. Either it will be like Skyrim and older players will yell at them for dumbing down the game. OR it will be like the old Morrowind and people who played Skyrim will fill their inbox with shit about how it isn't like Skyrim/Oblivion.