Obsidian Entertainment staffer Chris Avellone has taken to social media to reveal that the studio once pitched the idea of an Elder Scrolls spin-off to Bethesda (thanks, Windows Central).
"One of the Elder Scrolls proposals (which I pitched) was intended to serve the same function as [Fallout: New Vegas] did between [Fallout 3] and [Fallout 4], to provide more adventures in the setting during the years before the next Bethesda release," said Avellone on Twitter.
"I thought it couldn't hurt to try and push a similar system to what Treyarch/Activision had going with Call of Duty at the time (but hopefully less rushed). Bethesda could do a core release, then we'd release a [The Elder Scrolls] title (in same world or a divergent timeline/era) before the next big [Bethesda] push. Probably less relevant now that Elder Scrolls Online is going, but at the time, it seemed to be something that could benefit both studios."
As Avellone mentions, 2010's Fallout: New Vegas was the blueprint for the pitch; the Obsidian-developed spin-off filled the gap between mainline Fallout releases, and he was clearly confident that the team at the studio could perform the same duties with the Elder Scrolls IP.
He even reveals that there were plans to create an alternate game world, should Bethesda have any issues with Obsidian poking around with the lore. "If [Bethesda] didn't want us messing with their core world, one was a spinoff where you adventured in an alternate [The Elder Scrolls] world the last hero had failed to save in the last round of Elder Scroll titles," he says.
However, Avellone reveals that the pitch didn't get very far with the bigwigs at Bethesda. "Not surprisingly, [the pitch] didn't gain much traction — I never got the impression [Bethesda] was happy with [Fallout: New Vegas'] reception (good and bad)," he adds, before clarifying that New Vegas "had numerous issues at launch that we could have worked harder to resolve."
Obsidian is currently hard at work on Avowed, which is expected to arrive on the Xbox Series S/X and PC in 2024.