'It's been out for years!': 11 years in, people are still asking Bethesda when The Elder Scrolls Online is coming out

To hear my fellow Morrowboomers tell it, The Elder Scrolls Online might—secretly, quietly—be the true heir to the lore-heavy weirdness that made The Elder Scrolls 3 so beloved. Unfortunately, I have one principle and it's 'avoid human contact as much as possible,' so I'll never find out if that's true or not. But with how good the MMO apparently is (82% positive on Steam!) it's a wonder you don't hear more about it, right?

I'm not the only one who thinks so. In a chat with PCGamesN, Zenimax studio game director Rich Lambert said the low profile of TESO is "the biggest chip on my shoulder." Lambert—who served as TESO's director in a previous life—says the game is "either not taken seriously or dismissed or whatnot" and that fact has "always kind of befuddled me."

Worse than that, though: Lambert says it's not all that uncommon to run into people who aren't even aware the game is out, 11 years on from release. "I've been in countless interviews and at countless shows over the years where they're like 'Oh, when does this come out?' It's been out for years!"

Lambert has a theory as to why that happens, though. He reckons it's because the team doesn't "trumpet" the game all that much. "We're generally very behind the scenes, just working really hard, doing things right—we don't necessarily celebrate our successes as much as we maybe should."

Which is probably true, to an extent. As someone who receives videogame trumpeting on a professional basis, even I don't tend to hear all that much about the latest haps in TESO, but I think there's another, obvious reason: MMOs aren't really what people come to Bethesda for, even if those MMOs are great.

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Fans and followers of the studio's games just aren't going to pop for a multiplayer thing like they will for the barest glimpse of a new singleplayer Elder Scrolls or Fallout. Even I—ravenous as I am for more high-quality Elder Scrolls lore stuff—am not tempted.

But things can change. Maybe many years hence we'll think of Bethesda as the TESO and Fallout 76 studio rather than the Skyrim and Fallout 3 studio (no one's thinking of Fallout 4 first, let's be real). Lambert says moves are being made to that effect: "Our communication style is going to change going forward, and maybe that will help some of those things."

Anyway, I'm expecting good things from The Elder Scrolls Online just as soon as it releases, whenever that will be.