When you think of “mid-sized” games, what do you think of? Maybe, if you’re thinking about scope and budget, you’d label something like A Plague Tale: Requiem or Wicked West “mid-scale.” After all, they’re from a publisher that’s happy to tout the dominance of its Double-A titles.
Or you could be more specific – maybe label an individual indie as “medium”; No Man’s Sky, Fall Guys, Among Us.
You don’t think any of Bethesda’s RPG giants (Fallout, Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls Online, etc.) are mid-sized, do you? They are too big, too famous, published in too many formats. The last time we heard, Skyrim alone sold 30 million copies – and that was in 2016. It is indeed medium-sized.
So it’s surprising to see Microsoft keen to say that the successor to Skyrim, widely regarded as one of the most successful games of all time, is a “medium-sized” game.
The quote comes from Microsoft’s response to a study by the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority, which sought to determine whether the tech giant’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was healthy for the video game market.
under the heading, Decisions on mid-sized games aren’t evidence of Microsoft’s incentives as they relate to Call of Duty, Microsoft specifically named The Elder Scrolls 6 – identifying it as an example of one of its mid-sized games. Note that due to the legal nature of the document, some ambiguous language follows.
“Games like Elder Scrolls 6 (not expected to be released before [REDACTED] The last installment in the series will be released in 2011), and other future entries, will not involve Microsoft giving up $[REDACTED] Annual revenue from PlayStation customers or stripped rights. [REDACTED] million MAU on PlayStation,” the statement read.
The truth is, you could say that The Elder Scrolls 6 is indeed a mid-range game; compared to other super hit games (read: Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite) that have broad international appeal to many age groups, Elder Scrolls 6 will Medium size. It might mean a lot to us—for example, as gamers who couldn’t escape the influence and legacy of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout—but it’s nowhere near as important as Candy Crush in the eyes of the world.
You’ll notice that we’ve seen some crazy stories from today’s responses, including Microsoft’s assertion that CoD gamers aren’t “unique” or “special,” and its insistence that Xbox exclusives are a bit dated compared to Sony gamers.
Expect more information from these papers.
