Interview With Bethesda Softworks

Posted: 03-23-2007, 06:50 PM

PS3Chat speaks with Bethesda Soft's Pete Hines on Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the Playstation 3 console, future plans and more...

First of all, could you please introduce yourself and explain what your role is on this project?
I am Pete Hines and I am our Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing. Mostly, I spend a lot of time telling people about our games, I also wrote the manual, was the Editor in Chief for the hint book, and so on. I wear a lot of hats!

How large is the team working the PlayStation 3 game and how long has it been in development?
It fluctuates in size depending on what stage it is in, but it was around 20 people or so at any given time, not including the legions of people we had testing it. We started working on the game right around the time we shipped Oblivion for the PC and Xbox 360 last March.

Why did you choose to bring Oblivion to the PlayStation 3 a year after it appeared on PC and Xbox 360?
Well, it was always our intention to make the game available on as many platforms as possible. The chance to bring this kind of game to a whole new audience, one that has not been exposed to The Elder Scrolls, is exciting for us.

Will there be any particular differences between the original PC and Xbox 360 releases and this PlayStation 3 edition that you can comment on?
In general, there will not really be any differences. Our goal is for the gameplay experience to be similar no matter what platform you are playing on. Oblivion on PlayStation 3 comes with Knights of the Nine already included, whereas it was offered as downloadable content you had to buy for the PC and Xbox 360, but otherwise it is the same game.

Have there been any issues during development, such as aspects that you wanted to include but could not (for whatever reason)?
No, because we were really working with a finished product that we were simply trying to get to work on a completely different platform. So it is not like we were still deciding on features to include or exclude.

Has anything surprised you about the PlayStation 3 so far (in either positive or negative way)?
Every time I say something about the PlayStation 3 it seems to end up as a headline somewhere, often out of context, so I think I will pass on this one *smiles*

Could you please explain to our readers a little bit of the background story for the game? And how well do you think it will be received at the European launch?
Oblivion is about the deaths of the emperor and his sons, which allow these gates to open up and demons to invade the land. Your subsequent quest is to find the emperor’s lost heir and get him on the throne to put a stop to this invasion. But the cool thing is that your game does not have to be about that. It can be about becoming a member of the Thieves guild and working your way up in rank, or becoming an assassin and joining the Dark Brotherhood, or becoming a gladiator in the Arena and working your way up to Grand Champion…or all of the above. It is about whatever you want it to be about.

Can you put a rough figure on how long you think that the main game should last and what scope is there for increasing the longevity on the whole?
This game is absolutely immense. You can play it for hundreds of hours and still find new stuff to do. In terms of scope, it is pretty ridiculous. I have people who come up to me or email me all the time and say, “I played Oblivion for 120 hours and never got bored,” or 160 hours, or 200 + hours. People really get into it, and that is great. Or people will say I played it for 40 hours, felt like I got what it was all about, enjoyed it, and moved on. That is fine too.

Do you have plans to work on the PlayStation 3 again after development is completely wrapped up on this project?
I would certainly hope so.

What are your thoughts on the recently revealed Home feature of the PlayStation 3? And do you think it compares favourably to Nintendo’s own concept of the Mii community?
I think I will wait until it is out and can actually experience it for myself before I pass judgement. Microsoft’s achievements are a good idea of something that did not sound all that cool when it was first described and now people love it. Sounds neat, but I will wait to see it in action.

With the PlayStation 3 starting slowly over in the US and Japan compared to Nintendo’s Wii, do you think Sony will be able to catch up and overtake Nintendo in the long term or is this generation destined to have a different winner this time round?
I have no idea. So long as the competition sells lots of consoles for everyone, and those people buy lots of games, and game companies keep competing to make better and better games for those people to buy, I am happy.

With Oblivion now on the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, is there any way you could see a version coming to the Nintendo Wii?
It would be a completely different game. There is no way to take the console version as it exists and bring it to the Nintendo Wii. That is not to say we would not want to do a game like Oblivion for the Wii, but it wouldd have to be done right and be a good fit for that console and how it works.

Or could we maybe even see a downscaled project for something like the immensely popular Nintendo DS or Sony’s PlayStation Portable?
We are working on a version of Oblivion for PlayStation Portable that is a completely different game than the console version, but it is not something we are talking about a lot right now.

Finally, what games have you been playing in your spare time? And what are you looking forward to the most in the near future?
I recently finished playing Crackdown. I play Company of Heroes multiplayer just about every day at lunch with one of our designers, and I am really passing the time playing a little bit of everything – Worms, NCAA 2007 (still), I need to play GRAW2, and want to try Lost Planet – until my copies of Guitar Hero and Homecourt show up for the Xbox 360.

Peter Hines is vice president of PR and marketing at Bethesda Softworks. Interview by Adam Riley.


Charlie PS3Chat Members Posts: 551 Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Canada PSN ID: Sonny	03-23-2007, 07:18 PM Interesting. Though I'd like to learn more about the PSP version and whether or not Travels: Oblivion would connect to the PS3 Oblivion.


jesusraz PS3Chat Members Posts: 21 Join Date: Feb 2007	03-25-2007, 08:02 PM Good to know that: 1.) There keen to work on future PS3 games (a given, really) 2.) They've stated not ruling out making a bespoke version for the Wii!


Charlie PS3Chat Members Posts: 551 Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Canada PSN ID: Sonny	03-26-2007, 12:51 AM I just want a new Fallout, preferably on PS3.

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