Multiplayer Elder Scrolls Would Result in a Poorer Game

There are no shortage of things that fans would like to see from The Elder Scrolls -- in fact, we recently noted some of what we'd like to see in Skyrim. A number of commenters on our preview pointed out that multiplayer is the big addition they'd like to see. Unfortunately for them, it doesn't sound like that's something we'll be seeing from the series in the near future.

Bethesda PR and marketing boss Pete Hines spoke with Edge about the subject of multiplayer and insisted that the company has never asked any of the developers it's worked with to force it. He claimed, "I've always said: 'You tell us whether or not your game needs it. I'm not going to tell you it has to be in there, or it has to be on the back of the box. If that's the reason you're doing it then don't waste your time and don't waste ours.'"

Gearbox's Randy Pitchford recently addressed the inclusion of multiplayer in games where it's not needed. He said many publishers add multiplayer purely to list it as a feature on a fact sheet. "[T]he reason they do it is because they notice that the biggest blockbusters offer a little bit for every kind of consumer," Pitchford said. "You have people that want co-op and competitive, and players who want to immerse themselves in deep fiction. But the concept has to speak to that automatically; it can't be forced. That's the problem."

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