The 15-Year Wait Has Fans Desperate.

Almost 15 years.

That’s how long fans have been waiting. Most of you know which franchise I'm talking about.

The Elder Scrolls.

More specifically, that is how long it’s been since Skyrim was released and nearly as long as players have been waiting for its sequel, now rumored to be titled The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel.

Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011, and was built upon the success of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which was released in 2006. 

Although released full of bugs and issues, the Bethesda special touch, it immediately became a fan favorite of the series. It brought in many players who've never played any of the previous titles and made lifelong fans of the franchise's future.

After the massive success, which, despite how long it has been, has continued since its release, Skyrim became a steady pillar of many gamers' daily routine.

The open world they built has a certain magic and character that many other games have failed to replicate, a certain magic that Bethesda themselves have had a difficult time replicating as well.

The feeling you get when walking around the world and stumbling upon a hidden dungeon or questline that leads to hours of exploration remains unmatched. The feeling you get from seeing what the world has to offer for the first time is something players have searched for in other games.

You could simply spend hours listening to the soundtrack and taking in the beautiful world around you, having no goal in mind aside from wandering. Which I have done a few times.

So after almost two decades of waiting, can they live up to the long anticipation built from one of their greatest games? That is a lot of hype to live up to. More than most developers would want to try to improve on, regardless of whether it was well earned.

Bethesda hasn't helped their case after releasing a teaser announcing the sequel was in development back in 2018. For many, that was a sign of hope that it would be released in the coming year.

Ever since then, fans have been begging for more information. Only recently has a fan-favored rumor claimed the title to be Sentinel, a reference to the city by the same name in Hammerfell. 

The internet immediately spread this across social media, excited for any information after the long drought and silence from Bethesda. No release date or new trailer has come out yet, so fans are still stuck in speculation.

After delivering a world that fans have continued to get lost in, how can they build upon it and pull fans away from a game they have grown up with? Can they carry the success from Skyrim into Sentinel? It’s a lot for any studio to accomplish, and Bethesda may have become a victim of their own success.

The hype built for a game with so little shown could prove to be more of a detriment than a benefit. Fans and players, when left to their own imaginations for so long, may come to find the released version doesn't live up to the idealized version they built themselves.

The relationship between players and game developers has also changed since 2011. With players becoming more vocal and less forgiving of games released full of issues, Bethesda may find players more critical than they were when Skyrim was released.

Many fans have claimed that bugs and glitches are just a part of the charm of their games, but that was 15 years ago. Before players started to become more critical of launches and more vocal in their critiques, what was once charming and characteristic of Bethesda games may not be seen the same in today’s industry. The industry has had a long time to change, and $70 has become a much harder ask for players to spend.

Launch issues aside, they could deliver a ‘perfect game’ filled with stories and environments even more technically impressive than Skyrim. It could launch with very few issues and be polished to the point of perfection; yet with the imagination and anticipation of fans, they could do everything right and still find players disappointed after the long wait.

he fact that Skyrim has lasted and been praised for as long as it has is a clear indicator that the worlds Bethesda builds and stories that they tell really land with their fans. Though from that massive success, higher expectations come with it. Can they replicate and live up to the ever-lengthening years of hype from players who’ve aged since they first played Skyrim?

They aren’t only competing against their past success; they are also competing with the imagination of players and their own expectations after years. 

Can the rumored Sentinel survive the success of its predecessor and its long-term development cycle?