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Zenimax files 'FUS RO DAH' trademarks, USPTO cowers behind desk
There's little we like more than some good ol' fashioned wind shouting, Dragonborn-style, and it looks like Bethesda Softworks parent company Zenimax Media agrees with us. The company recently filed a sextet of trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the term "Fus Roh Dah" – a trio of words that originate with Skyrim.In particular, the filings pertain to everything from the typical computer game trademark to a variety of merchandising and "entertainment services." Though it's fun to fantasize about the ridiculous merchandizing possibilities, it's likely that Bethesda's parent company is just locking up said trademarks against potential profiteers. Now, if you'll excuse us, we'll get back to dreaming about "Fus Roh Dah"-themed sporting equipment (covered by filing number 85589296).
Skyrim 1.5 live on 360, hits PS3 'this afternoon'
Skyrim version 1.5 is now live on Xbox 360 and should be live on PS3 "later this afternoon," according to Bethesda VP of PR Pete Hines. This update contains, among other things, the addition of kill-cam cinematics for projectile weapons and spells, as well as new kill animations for melee weapons. Check out all the newness in the trailer above, and check out the full patch notes after the break.
Examining the tragic life of a Skyrim Hoarder
Hoarders pulls off a nifty trick, allowing viewers to feel sad for the mental issues experienced by the show's subjects while simultaneously feeling a little better about themselves. Skyrim Hoarders, however, hits a little too close to home. Think about it, do you really need 27 iron daggers?
ngmoco's Cousins expects free-to-play equivalent of Skyrim in a few years
Ben Cousins, who spearheaded Battlefield Heroes and Battlefield Play4Free for EA before being snatched up by ngmoco to head up its offices in Sweden, envisions an industry landscape where big-budget free-to-play titles dominate.Cousins spoke of several different tiers of freemium games at the Free-2-Play Summit in London, as reported by GI.biz. The highest he predicts as a "monetization super-highway," with no limit to what players can spend and rewards that are more interesting and complex. "I believe that single-player will be the next to be cracked in terms of freemium monetisation," he said. "And I'm talking about traditional, story-based, scripted, linear and non-linear single-player that we see on consoles."I am totally 100 percent confident -- I will bet large amounts of money -- that we will have, in the next few years, a free-to-play equivalent of Skyrim," Cousins said. "A game like Skyrim, where you accrue skills and equipment over time, that you can play for hundreds of hours, is actually one of the easiest games to develop for a free-to-play model. That would be a big hit."In this future, Cousins said the average user would have no problem dropping $60 over the course of playing the game. "In the future I believe free-to-play will be the way that nearly everyone plays games, it will be nearly every genre, and it will be nearly every platform."[Image credit: OfficialGDC]
Skyrim Machinima Theater: The fall of Markarth
Not since the great battle of Skyrim have we seen such a an impressive example of machinima in Tamriel. Unsurprisingly, this video is by the same folks who brought us that previous epic battle.
Kill with greater variety and look good doing it in Skyrim's 1.5 update
Vanity is the subject of the next major update coming to Skyrim, which introduces new kill move animations for melee combat and some snazzy kill cams for ranged weapons and magic spells. If they look familiar in the video above, it's because you already saw them during Todd Howard's DICE 2012 keynote.Of course, that's not the entirety of the update. Smithing skill boosts now factor into forged item value, there's a "better transition" when going underwater, and a variety of bugs and glitches are addressed. The full patch notes are over on the Bethesda Blog.If you're a PC player, you can play a beta version of the 1.5 update on Steam right now. All you have to do is go into your settings tab and opt in through the client. The update will be available for Xbox 360 and PS3 players "soon."
Bethesda's Todd Howard on Skyrim's biggest development hurdle, fan-made mods, and what happens next
Todd Howard and his clan of designers from Bethesda Game Studios walked off the stage with top honors for 'Game of the Year' at the 2012 Game Developers Coice Awards last week, for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As the large group shuffled off to party, Howard, the company's boss, took a few moments to speak with the media.Topics of discussion quickly merged into one frame of thought: what happens next? Everyone wants to know when the first piece of downloadable content will launch, how will it change the award-winning experience, and more.Howard, being as used to sidestepping media inquires about unannounced items as he is working with a talented team, quickly shot those questions down.Our focus, however, was slightly different. With a game as large as Skyrim, we wondered what complications arose during development. What is the hardest part about crafting a world meant to live on its own, away from the player's eyes?%Gallery-139026%
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim awarded 'Game of the Year' at 2012 Game Developers Choice Awards
With the Game Developers Choice Awards just now coming to an end, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was announced as the overall 'Game of the Year' winner for 2011.We're not surprised, folks. It's pretty good.For a complete recap of the nominees and winners, check out our previous coverage.
Lego-ized animation of 2011's biggest games
Created by Alex Kobbs for the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, this three-minute bit of Lego stop-motion opened the show. The montage covers 15 games and took about three months to complete. For more on the conference, check out our coverage.
Skyrim beta update 1.4.26 live on Steam
Bethesda's approach to avoiding "latest patch does horrible thing," which is to publicly beta test its updates, is paying off. Skyrim version 1.4.26 is now downloadable from Steam, and the general working theory is: if it breaks the game, it's almost your fault for downloading it in the first place. (We jest!)Bethesda warns that only players affected by the issues found after the break should download the update. Remember to back up any save files if you plan to go down the beta route.
Skyrim Interactive Map App is a world of microtransactions
Still wandering aimlessly around Tamriel, trying to remember where you left your giant pile of buckets? Get out your phone and get some help. Publisher Prima Games just released an official Skyrim map app, beating the fanmade Dragon Shout to the punch.The app comes with a world map and 9 capital city maps for free, with other detailed locations available through in-app purchases. You can drop pins on points of interest (say, Bucket Stack Alpha) and zoom in 3200%.While we're a bit shocked that portions of the Skyrim map are behind a paywall in an app that is nothing but maps of that one game, we must concede the point that Skyrim is irresponsibly huge.
Bethesda remembers Fallout 3 concept artist Adam Adamowicz
In a touching tribute to Fallout 3 concept artist Adam Adamowicz who fell to cancer last week, Bethesda is featuring a collection of his work on sites attached to their biggest properties. Though Adamowicz will no longer be seen sketching new worlds for players to explore, the development team at Bethesda says players have yet to see the end of his work."Right until the end he was drawing, creating images for a new game many years off. It is in that game, and our past games, that he will live on. You have not seen the last of his amazing talent and spirit," Bethesda's tribute page notes. "We will miss him terribly, but he will always be with us."
Skyrim's PC fans are modding the crap out of it with Steam Workshop
When Skyrim and Steam teamed up, we had a feeling whatever they created would be an instant, smash hit, and it looks like we were right. More than 2 million mods have been downloaded from Steam's Skyrim Workshop, and players have published more than 2,500 mods since its launch on February 2, Bethesda says. Mods range from Valve's own Fall of the Space Core, to graphics updates, varied weapons options, mechanics changes and posh mudcrabs, as seen in the "best of" video above.Skyrim outsold all Steam games three-to-one in its first month, and it outsold all exclusive titles for both PS3 and Xbox 360, Bethesda claims. The average Steam user has played Skyrim for more than 75 hours, which is a ridiculously high average. Modern Warfare 3 outsold Skyrim for the year, but Skyrim was the second-most-successful title of 2011, beating other blockbusters such as EA's Battlefiled 3. And it doesn't even have multiplayer!
Skyrim snags another best of show gong at 15th annual AIAS awards
Like the sun rising in the East or our daily tribute to the almighty caffeine deity, we've come to expect writing a post at least once a week announcing yet another award for Skyrim. This week is no different, with Skyrim taking top honors at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in Las Vegas last evening.The studio took home five awards in total for the dragon-infested, open-world RPG, alongside fellow multiple award winners Uncharted 3 and Portal 2. We've dropped a full list of winners after the break, but before you head there allow us to be outraged for you that Skyward Sword didn't win any awards. Outrage! How could they? Etc.
PSA: Skyrim patch 1.4 now up on 360, PS3 coming soon
The latest patch has been applied to the wide open world of Skyrim on Xbox 360. The 1.4 update -- out on PC since last week -- squashes some bugs and fixes issues with a number of quests. You can find a full list of fixes and changes right here.Bethesda is still awaiting word from Sony regarding the PS3 patch. It will hopefully go live today as well.
Watch Bethesda's 'Skyrim Game Jam' sizzle reel right here
Skeleton butlers? Seasonal foliage? Skyrim knows not these things, but it maybe perhaps we sure hope could according to a seriously noncommittal Todd Howard speaking at the beginning of the video above, shot at his DICE 2012 keynote last evening in Las Vegas.
Internal Bethesda 'Skyrim Game Jam' sizzle reel features dragon mounts, giant mudcrabs
Let's pretend you work at Bethesda Game Studios. Congratulations! You've just shipped The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a game that would go on to win multiple 'Game of the Year' awards. You're tired, probably haven't seen your family in months, and you have a week off. What do you do? Work on Skyrim, of course!During his DICE 2012 keynote, Bethesda Games Studios game director and executive producer Todd Howard discussed an annual tradition at the company: a game jam, where staff are allowed to create anything they want on company time for one week. This year, the only stipulation was creating something within the recently released Skyrim.In a sizzle reel presented to attendees, the public was shown what the minds at Bethesda could create. On the list? Mountable dragons, epic mounts (like flaming horses), giant mudcrab bosses that rival any other games, a new skill tree focused on lycanthropy, Kinect-enabled shouts (like this!), the ability to build homes, adopt children, use spears, and much more.Howard was quick to note that the features shown in the video -- which were all running within the game -- were experiments. "How much of this stuff sees the light of day? To be determined. Could it be in a future DLC? We don't know. Could various parts of it just be released for free? We don't know."And what was id Software's John Carmack doing that week? "[He] shot a rocket into f***ing space!" Howard said, showing actual footage of a rocket Carmack sent out of the earth's orbit. We'd still rather have dragon mounts. Check out the list of 'Game Jam' features after the break.
Todd Howard: Over 10 million Skyrim players, average PC playtime 75 hours
During his DICE 2012 keynote speech, Bethesda Games Studios game director and executive producer Todd Howard revealed that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been played by "over ten million people." In December, Bethesda revealed it had shipped ten million units worldwide.Of the "over ten million" players, Howard says that "many million" are playing the game on PC. Based on Steam statistics Bethesda has seen, "the average playtime is 75 hours," something Howard called "amazing." Our assumption is that there are a number of players worldwide who have yet to power down their machines since the game's November 11, 2011 launch.The PC version of Skyrim continues to evolve, with the recent release of the Skyrim Creation Kit and its partnership with Valve to become the second featured title -- behind Team Fortress 2 -- in the Steam Workshop, which highlights user-generated content and streams it into games."It's something we'd like to see come to consoles one day," Howard said, adding that giving players the ability to "take and change" the game helps to make the experience unique. To Howard, games are the "ultimate combination of art [and] technology" and allowing the players to become their own "director."
Bethesda's Todd Howard on how games can make players 'proud'
Set aside your favorite movie, music, or traditional piece of art, because there's only one medium that has the ability to make the one experiencing it proud: video games. This was the message Bethesda Games Studios game director and executive producer Todd Howard had for attendees during his DICE 2012 keynote.Using the level end music from Peggle and the level-up sound from Modern Warfare, Howard explained that video games have the ability to reach people in ways others are unable because they can convey a sense of accomplishment. Helping to give players that feeling with intelligent game design "makes it the greatest," he said. Howard noted jokingly that he used the Modern Warfare sound for his email, to give him a sense of pride when he sends something off.Much of Howard's introduction focused on Bethesda's three rules of development, which he discussed during his 2009 DICE keynote. Howard said the difficult balance of design is finding a harmony in creating a challenge for players that isn't so easy that it leaves them bored and isn't so difficult that they give up.The gameplay loop (Learn, Play, Challenge, Surprise), as he explains, is presenting a game mechanic to the player in steps that entice them to continue. Howard discussed how Half-Life 2's introduction to the Gravity Gun is a perfect example of using the loop effectively -- players learn how to use the gun by playing with it, they are challenged to use it in new ways, and are surprised by what they can accomplish. This accomplishment helps to build the level of pride the players experience throughout the adventure. Howard urged game makers in the audience to be proud of their work and to make gamers proud in the process."Do something great. Make yourself proud," he said. "Make the player proud they played it. Make them proud they bought it."
Skyrim goes Braveheart in amazing machinima video
YouTube user "Tyrannicon" has a bit of flair for the dramatic, it seems. Between the epic music, dramatic shots, and hundreds (thousands?) of dead Skyrim characters he lays waste to in this incredible video, we're gonna go ahead and say he's got a pretty apt username.
