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The Fallout TV show has drawn fans into its post-apocalyptic chaos and attracted plenty of folks new to the games and universe from Bethesda Game Studios – but how would a similar televised version of The Elder Scrolls series fare?
Todd Howard, the Bethesda boss himself, has previously said that an Elder Scrolls TV series like Fallout's "can't be ruled out" – but not everyone thinks that it should actually happen. Bruce Nesmith, former Skyrim lead and studio veteran, is one such individual, it seems.
Speaking in a recent interview with Press Box PR, Nesmith reveals as much when asked about a potential Elder Scrolls show coming after Fallout's success.
"What you have to realize about things like the Fallout TV show is that they don't make Bethesda money directly," he begins. "I would be shocked if Bethesda is making any money that they care about really, not when you make literally billions of dollars on Skyrim. What you're going to make by licensing the IP to this TV show is just peanuts."
Direct revenue isn't the only motivating factor, however. There's also the audience itself. As Nesmith puts it, "But what it does get you is attention. What it gets you is notoriety. It's marketing." That might not be something The Elder Scrolls series needs, though – especially with The Elder Scrolls 6 somewhere on the horizon.
"Do they really need marketing for Elder Scrolls 6?" Nesmith wonders. It's easy to say that Bethesda doesn't, but the ex-series developer offers another reason a TV series might not work as well as it did for Fallout.
"I also think there's something very special and different and unique about Fallout that lends itself to becoming a TV or movie experience, whereas The Elder Scrolls is trying to be a standard kind of fantasy," he explains. "That's not as interesting, not in this day and age where you already have The Lord of the Rings movies. We've got Game of Thrones. You'd have to try to find something to lean into that would be special about it."
Nesmith continues: "You look at Fallout, everything is special about it. There is nothing like the Fallout universe anywhere else in gaming. It's very unique. That makes it easy to make a TV show and draw eyeballs as opposed to going into a fantasy world where I've got elves and people throwing spells around. You'd have to raise those stakes. There's a dragon? I've seen dragons 20 times before. What are you giving to viewers that's new?"
I suppose I understand where he's coming from as both a fantasy fanatic and an Elder Scrolls stan myself, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't work at all.
Nesmith suggests other mediums as a possible middle ground himself. "Different media have different needs, and I don't know that The Elder Scrolls would fit that media well," he states. "Maybe a movie, but I would struggle to see a TV show." Regardless, he still thinks it'd be "for promotional purposes."
I'm not sure how I feel: the Fallout series certainly is "unique," as Nesmith says, thanks to its components, and The Elder Scrolls is more run-of-the-mill fantasy. But there's still plenty to love and set it apart. Just look at Morrowind and its quirky humor.
