Elder Scrolls Online studio head says Skyrim completely changed what people even thought an Elder Scrolls RPG was, so the MMO “had to radically change lots of things”

The Elder Scrolls Online’s Matt Firor considers Skyrim, which launched before ESO while the MMO was still in development, “very much a virtual world game just centered around one player.” I know this because he told me as much during our interview at Game Developers Conference (GDC) back in March. He also says that the launch of Skyrim had an absolutely massive effect on ESO and ultimately led to radical changes.

“When we started developing ESO 17 years ago, there was no Skyrim; Oblivion had just launched, Fallout 3 hadn’t even launched yet,” says Firor. “I mean, Bethesda was only like 75 people, it was a long time ago. And then when Skyrim did launch, it had a massive effect on ESO because suddenly everyone’s perception of what an Elder Scrolls game is changed, and we had to change because of that. Because the game that we were working on that was ESO wasn’t viable anymore. And we had to radically change lots of things.”

My question for Firor was about how the team prepares to compete with itself when there are other, let’s say, similar projects in development internally across Bethesda’s portfolio. I noted that Skyrim, while not an MMO, was a huge world that people practically lived in after launch. While Firor didn’t discuss other projects like, for example, The Elder Scrolls 6, he did acknowledge that the team is very aware that what folks want can change.

“I’m very cognizant of making sure that every type of gamer has a home in the kind of games that we’re working on and expectations are met, because I’ve went through that once already,” he adds.

The next chapter for The Elder Scrolls Online, Gold Road, is set to launch on June 3 for PC and Mac and June 18 for PlayStation and Xbox. If Elder Scrolls Online isn’t your thing, you’re welcome to pick through our ranking of the best MMOs to play right now.

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