Bethesda on Skyrim's viewable Morrowind, Cyrodiil: "maybe we'll use it one day"

By Robert Purchese Published 15 February, 2012

"The reason they are there..."

In Skyrim, you can see neighbouring Elder Scrolls regions - and previous game settings - Morrowind and Cyrodiil because a believable horizon demanded it, Bethesda has explained.

If they weren't there, in other words, it would look odd.

They're not necessarily poised to stage downloadable content adventures, but Bethesda's Todd Howard also hasn't closed the book on that idea, telling Kotaku "maybe one day we'll use them".

map

Tamriel, the world of Elder Scrolls.

"The reason they are there - and I will not say if we are or are not using them in the future - is when we first built the landmass for Skyrim we knew we were going to have these tall mountains," explained Howard.

"And what can you see see? We have views early in the project where you can see into the [neighbouring] province from the other game. We needed to have something [there].

"It's not high detail," he added. "If you walk there, from a distance it's - yeah, the stuff is there. And the thinking is, maybe we'll use it one day.

"But our larger worry was, I'm going to climb up on top of a mountain and look that way. What will I be able to see there? We try to cover all those angles as much as we can."

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 3 months ago

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  • Sodding_Gamer #1 3 months ago

    That definitely sounds to me that they are going to be using it for DLC :D Let's hope!

  • orangpelupa #2 3 months ago

    "But our larger worry was, I'm going to climb up on top of a mountain and look that way. What will I be able to see there? We try to cover all those angles as much as we can."
    so what about the lower right of skyrim that have BIG opened Gate that being blocked by invisible wall and a pop up on screen sayin "You are not allowed to go thru here" ?

    the gate is opened...

  • DrStrangelove #3 3 months ago

    I'm pretty confident they will. After 10 million copies sold, you can expect a lot of DLC, and to keep people interested who spent hundreds of hours in the snow, they're going to add different worlds I guess.

  • drhickman1983 #4 3 months ago

    so what about the lower right of skyrim that have BIG opened Gate that being blocked by invisible wall and a pop up on screen sayin "You are not allowed to go thru here" ?

    the gate is opened...
    That's because one does not simply walk into Cyrodiil.

  • Widge #5 3 months ago

    That would be some DLC, not forgetting the both of those games were entire full length adventures in their own right... and Morrowind was set on the island of Vvardenfell, not the full size of the region.

    It would be an extra eight areas the size of Skyrim to create, with art, with lore, with quests, with story, with locations (and replicating those that have been in Oblivion and Morrowind), with characters, dialogue...

    Eight new games to create.

    Bethedsa’s DLC has become less like the DLC of old like Shivering Isles, and has become more of a short sharp additional quest. Little outlay and development time for large rewards.

  • arcam #6 3 months ago

    @Widge I agree that these areas are too big to use for DLC, but I'm sure I remember Bethesda saying Skyrim DLC would be more like Shivering Isles, not less.

  • Zerobob #7 3 months ago

    Unfortunately that sounds like a very good and realistic explanation for the surrounding low-detail neighbouring provinces.

    Still reserving a little hope for Morrowind DLC though.

  • Srift #8 3 months ago

    Smart..but what about the bugs? what about that mountain? I can see lots from up there.
    Edited by Srift at 15/02/12 @ 09:46

  • LucienChase #9 3 months ago

    It would be really cool if they could actually tie in the previous games as expansion packs, so that you could wander all over the place and do all the quests. There would be (relatively) little outlay in terms of development and art costs as most of the stuff exists (Vvardenfell would need to have high res textures done at least, but there are community mods they could draw on).

    I dream on...

  • jonfon #10 3 months ago

    @Widge
    Indeed. It'd be nice if they'd allow modders to exploit them though. All that nice spare space just sitting there, empty and unloved...

    They might use chunks of it for DLC but you're right, the only way you'll see it used widely is likely to be if it becomes mod accessible.

  • Nielz0r #11 3 months ago

    I'd rather visit Hammerfell so I can check out those curved swords the guards are always on about. Curved. Swords.

  • Widge #12 3 months ago

    @arcam Really? Thats good to hear. I'm holding until the GOTY of Bethesda releases as I like to play all the content, as I want it, when I want it, rather than waiting for it all to be released.

  • Widge #13 3 months ago

    @jonfon Erk, I was just about to mention the awesome looking Val1ty mods for Morrowind which had been taking the graphical fidelity up to that of Oblivion... but, I can’t find any trace of him/them on the internet anymore!!

  • mkreku #14 3 months ago

    What if they remade the entire Morrowind landmass with Skyrim technology and released it as an expansion? It would be the coolest game remake ever..

  • robthehermit #15 3 months ago

    I can't see them using other regions in any meaningful way. What happens in Skyrim, stays in Skyrim and all that. While it might be nice to revisit Cyrodil and venture into Morrowind for the first time (for me anyway) I just can't see it happening. Any DLC would probably either use existing assets or a new confined space.

    That said, if they wanted to run Morrowind and/or Oblivion through a Skyrim filter and release them as full games I'd be all over them.

  • Eraserhead #16 3 months ago

    Look, let's not think small - I will accept nothing less than the entire planet of Nirn, with all its other continents as well as Tamriel, modelled and made playable.

  • mcmothercruncher #17 3 months ago

    Fix the fucking game first.

  • shadow651 #18 3 months ago

    well they did say they were aiming for larger more meaningful DLC so I can't see why not

  • ROCK-NYC #19 3 months ago

    That dlc is coming baby!

  • Daikon #20 3 months ago

    I wouldn't mind replaying Oblivion remastered with the Skyrim engine.

  • Kaminari #21 3 months ago

    @Daikon Ironic, considering it's the same.

  • bulldosage #22 3 months ago

    @Daikon:
    quote: "I wouldn't mind replaying Oblivion remastered with the Skyrim engine"

    Well, that would basically be the original Oblivion, since Skyrim still uses the original engine. Just a few tweaks here and there. It's one of the most criticized features.

  • KingFunkIII #23 3 months ago

    @LucienChase Yes! If only they were working on a program which you could feed the game files from Morrowind and Oblivion into and it would Skyrimify them. Like Morroblivion, but instead Skyrowindivion! Would kinda make Morroblivion redundant, of course.

    Yes, that dream is pretty far fetched and I can't even begin to imagine the technical implications but it's my dream too.

    Oh and there is the matter of needing to justify time travel...
    Edited by KingFunkIII at 15/02/12 @ 13:29

  • Whitster #24 3 months ago

    @mcmothercruncher Finished my last faction last night, 120 hours played, still nothing game breaking.

  • Darthomatic #25 3 months ago

    Not sure about DLC because it will cost too much in my opinion to effectively build a new fully fledged gameworld. But... Full price game similar to Fallout New Vegas that connects to Skyrim? I'd give Bethesda my money now.

  • mcmothercruncher #26 3 months ago

    @whitster Congratulations, you should do science with that sort of intellectual rigour.

  • juliankennedy23 #27 3 months ago

    The heck with DLC I want Elder Scrolls New Morrowood... You can have my $60 right now.

  • guernican #28 3 months ago

    @mcmothercruncher

    And with your rapier wit, you could enjoy a starring role on My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.