Why Skyrim Never Got Its Own New Vegas: Blame Elder Scrolls Online

Fallout 3 got Fallout: New Vegas. Skyrim got nothing of the sort. According to one of the people who helped build it, the answer comes down to an MMO.

Kurt Kuhlmann, a co-lead designer on Skyrim and a Bethesda veteran of roughly 20 years, told FRVR (as reported by VGC) that The Elder Scrolls Online played a major part in why no side-story followed the 2011 RPG. In his telling, the online game effectively gave Elder Scrolls fans a place to spend their time, which took pressure off the studio to produce a second single-player entry set in the same era.

The comparison is a natural one. Fallout 3 was handed to Obsidian Entertainment, which turned around New Vegas in about 18 months and produced a game many fans still rank above the original. Skyrim's popularity was arguably even bigger, so the lack of a similar project has long puzzled players who wanted to see another studio's take on Tamriel.

Kuhlmann's explanation suggests it was less about a lack of interest and more about how Bethesda's resources and priorities were spread. With The Elder Scrolls Online already running as a live service and drawing in players, the brand had an active product in market. Meanwhile, the studio's attention was pointed at other projects rather than farming out a Skyrim follow-up.

That reasoning fits how the franchise has looked over the last decade. Skyrim itself has been re-released on almost every platform imaginable, while The Elder Scrolls Online has kept rolling out yearly expansions and story chapters. The next mainline entry, The Elder Scrolls 6, has remained a long-term prospect rather than something fans can plan around.

For fans who still dream of an Obsidian-style reinvention of Skyrim, the comments are unlikely to be a comfort. They do, however, clear up a long-running question about why the series went a different direction. Instead of a quirky, systems-remixing spin-off, the Elder Scrolls faithful got an MMO, and that MMO appears to have shaped the roadmap more than many assumed.