Elder Scrolls VI Announced

[Blender]

Something to consider is that re-using the engine that everyone at Bethesda is most familiar and comfortable with should mean faster development and fewer bugs. A brand new engine would take longer and likely bring with it more bugs as the developers learn it and optimize it.

Also, I'm not sure if this needs to be pointed out, but re-using an engine doesn't mean that it won't be significantly upgraded. New Vegas re-used Morrowind's engine 8 years later, yet the graphics were noticeably better. EA has been using the Frostbite engine since 2008, but has significantly upgraded it several times. They've just been smart enough to give each iteration a version number. Bethesda doesn't do that, but they probably should, IMO. If they were to announce that ES6 will use Creation 3.0, whereas Fallout 4 & 76 were Creation 2.0 and Skyrim was Creation 1.0, they'd mostly avoid this grumbling from fans. That could be a small symptom of how Bethesda is a little out of touch with the pulse of the fans.

Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas both used the same engine as Oblivion, not Morrowind, which used a previous release of the engine. You're right though if they just said they were using an updated version of the engine like they have done before, they would avoid some backlash.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Something to consider is that re-using the engine that everyone at Bethesda is most familiar and comfortable with should mean faster development and fewer bugs. A brand new engine would take longer and likely bring with it more bugs as the developers learn it and optimize it.

Absolutely it would, but if we're being honest, Bethesda needs to take the time required, whether that means a new engine or upgrading the existing one to a truly significant point.

For some time now, Bethesda's excellent game designs have covered up for a lot of the technical issues. The second they released a game that their fans were less enthusiastic about (FO76), the problems have come to the forefront.

They need a strong showing for Starfield/ESVI.


I guess what I'm trying to say is I prefer it to be made well rather than made quickly.

Also, I'm not sure if this needs to be pointed out, but re-using an engine doesn't mean that it won't be significantly upgraded. New Vegas re-used Morrowind's engine 8 years later, yet the graphics were noticeably better. EA has been using the Frostbite engine since 2008, but has significantly upgraded it several times. They've just been smart enough to give each iteration a version number. Bethesda doesn't do that, but they probably should, IMO. If they were to announce that ES6 will use Creation 3.0, whereas Fallout 4 & 76 were Creation 2.0 and Skyrim was Creation 1.0, they'd mostly avoid this grumbling from fans. That could be a small symptom of how Bethesda is a little out of touch with the pulse of the fans.

True, but there's a difference between significant upgrades and the "significant upgrades" they claimed for Fallout 76. They boasted about 16x the detail and brand new lighting and rendering technology, but to my eye the improvements were minimal at best and the game is (or at least was) plagued with issues.

Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas both used the same engine as Oblivion, not Morrowind, which used a previous release of the engine. You're right though if they just said they were using an updated version of the engine like they have done before, they would avoid some backlash.

I think all four used Gamebryo, didn't they?

 

[Osprey]

Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas both used the same engine as Oblivion, not Morrowind, which used a previous release of the engine.

A previous release of the engine can still be thought of, technically, as the same engine. This gets to my point, that there isn't a consensus on what makes for a "new" engine. Some people (especially fans) tend to call each version (or release) a different engine than the last, while others (especially developers, I think) consider it all one engine with multiple versions. Bethesda appears to believe the latter, since they're saying that ES6 will use the Creation engine even though we all know that it'll be upgraded some from the version in Fallout 4/76 and upgraded a lot from the version in Skyrim. Some fans may overlook that, though, if they're the type to assume that there are no major improvements if the name or version number of the engine used changes.

I think all four used Gamebryo, didn't they?

They did.

Gamebryo | PCGamingWiki