Bethesda Promises that Skyrim DLC Additions “Will Have a Lot of Meat on Them”
By Yannick LeJacq | December 12, 2011 | News | 4 comments | Share
This past weekend, game director Todd Howard and his team at Bethesda took home the coveted Game of the Year award from this year’s Video Game Awards for their latest open-world fantasy RPG set in The Elder Scrolls universe, Skyrim. At the ceremony, however, Howard was already talking about forthcoming additions to the game which, he promises, will ”have a lot of meat on them.”
Howard empasized to Joystiq that updating and adding to the game will focus more on controlling quality rather than quantity. Future DLC will look at ”ways to make the game better, not just have more, because the game is so big,” he explained. ”So we’re going through ideas right now, and processing everything people are doing in the game, and trying to think of ways that we can improve it.” With that effort in mind, Howard remained vague in terms of potential release dates, saying that they ”don’t have a timetable,” since Bethesda wants to take their time on the releases. “They won’t be quick, and they’ll have a lot of meat on them,” he continued.
Following the pattern set for the original Fallout DLC, however, Bethesda did make it clear that the first two downloadable add-ons will be exclusive to the XBox 360 version of the game for the first 30 days after its release, after which the DLC will become available to PC and PS3 users as well. Originally, Howard has also said that Skyrim will have fewer DLC add-ons than Bethesda offered with Fallout 3, but they will be “more substantial,” saying that he wants each of the DLC additions for Skyrim to feel more like a true “expansion pack.”
Skyrim has set a new record for Bethesda, long-time developer and creator of the original series and its particular brand of sprawling and immersive open-world experiences. The new game generated enormous sales figures and overwhelming critical acclaim, holding its own amidst the release of industry giants such as Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 last month. ”We thought it would do well,” Howard said, “but it has gone above and beyond.”
While Bethesda has already updated the game for both PC and console players with more patches on the way, Howard joked that some glitches in the game have led to creative surprises. ”I think our favorite really is putting the buckets on the heads,” Howard revealed. ”It was like day two, and we went, what? Do we fix that? Our lead programmer is pissed and wants to fix it, and I said I’m not sure we should. That’s one of those where maybe we leave it in.”
Another crucial detail into which many eager gamers have inquired is the possibility of multiplayer for such a vast, fully-realized world. But this possibility is not at the center of Howard’s attention right now. “You can never say never to anything like that,” he admitted, “but it’s not what our focus is. This type of game is where our hearts are, what we get excited about, and that’s what we want to focus on. We don’t want to lose that focus and we never want to sacrifice anything in the singleplayer game just to have it be multiplayer.”
So, when do we get horse armor?
Sooo... How 'bout dem backwards flying dragons?
First DLC: Armor for backwards-flying dragons!
how about a arena