Bethesda's upcoming Elder Scrolls expansion pack on the 360, available only by download, will be double the cost of existing Xbox Live titles.

The Shivering Isles will set you back 2,400 Microsoft points, or about £19.35 for those of us still using real money. Previously the most you could pay was 1,200 points for the likes of Bankshot Billiards and Lumines Live.

SPOnG's not complaining, however. Bethesda's promising 30 hours of gameplay in the expansion. Further to that the PC version (which will sell through high street retailers) is going on sale for £19.99. Bethesda isn't ripping you off, here. This could mark the beginning of a worrying trend for retailers, however.

This is the first time a game of this size has been offered through Xbox Live. SPOnG asked a contact in retail how they felt about it. "That is quite worrying, if it's the start of a trend," SPOnG was told. "As this is the first of it's kind I'm not too worried in [i]this case. And I do think that people like to physically have something, like with CDs. But if more developers do this it could be a problem."
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Bethesda has revealed that the Xbox 360 version of Oblivion expansion Shivering Isles, which to date has only be given an Xbox Live Marketplace release, could very well hit retail. Raising hopes for Oblivion fans not hooked up to Live (though you should be by now, frankly), Shivering Isles senior game designer Bruce Nesmith told Gamertag Radio that an Oblivion compilation pack is planned. "Eventually we will publish a complete version, a Game of the Year or Special Edition - I don't know ...
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In a recent interview with Gamertag Radio, design director of Oblivion Shivering Isles Bruce Nesmith let out some interesting details. When asked how Oblivion fans who don't have Xbox Live could get the Shivering Isles expansion pack, Nesmith admitted that they were working on a retail version. According to Nesmith, there will be a new special edition of Oblivion available at retail that will include all of the previously released content including the new Shivering Isles expansion. He also went on to say that there will be more downloadable content for Oblivion in the near future.
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Today Bethesda announced the price and release date for the latest expansion to its epic RPG landscape, The Elder Scrolls IV: The Shivering Isles. Players can download the expansion from Xbox Live the week of March 26 for 2400 Microsoft Points ($29.99).

Also, a Shivering Isles trailer will available on Xbox Live later today, along with a new theme and pic pack.
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You read it right. UK's Xbox 360 Gamer mag did certainly have an exclusive hands-on access of The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles expansion.
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"We get asked that a lot," admitted Pete Hines, Vice President-PR/Marketing for Bethesda, when Pro-G UK asked him if the company had any plans for an Elder Scrolls MMORPG.

The answer is no, not really, Pete explained his opinion that they couldn't do an Elder Scrolls MMO "unless it was with some fresh idea that no one has ever tried before." This isn't an unqualified "no," though. "Certainly, there's a chance, it's something we've talked about, but it's not anywhere in our immediate future." The key is to come up with that "something new" that will work in an MMO environment, and as it stands with Oblivion on the one hand, and World of Warcraft on the other, it just won't work.
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Bethesda confirmed at a recent press event that Shivering Isles will be one of the first games to make use of the extra 250 achievement points available for downloadable expansion packs.

The Oblivion add-on for 360 will also feature new shader technology that should bring the game up to the graphical standard of the PS3 copy, adding to recent comments from Bethesda spokesperson Pete Hines that the two versions will look virtually identical.
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In an interview with GamesRadar, Bethesda's Pete Hines, vice president for PR and marketing, has revealed that one of the next pieces of downloadable content for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will be a Fighter's Stronghold. This would follow in the same style as the previously released Thieves Den and Vile Lair plugins, but offering you a more noble pad to kick your heels ...
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An article over at Joystiq.com suggest so

-- "When we learned that the PS3 version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion would not feature the majority of downloadable content found on the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game, it was a blow to fans of horse armor everywhere. This weeks episode of The 1UP Show (02/02) provides the follow-up hook as Managing Editor Garnett Lee relays a juicy bit of info from Bethesda. As it turns out, it's due to a memory limitation with the Playstation 3 itself."

Read the full article for more details on the PS3, Xbox 360 and rumored Wii versions.
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The Capcom game noticeably absent from the nominee pool at this week's AIAS-sponsored Achievement Awards shares the distinction of being the most-nominated game in the upcoming Game Developers Choice Awards competition.

Okami shares the honor with Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Each title is nominated in four categories, including Best Game.
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