During its E3 conference last night, Bethesda Game Studios revealed that a new game in the Elder Scrolls series is coming to iOS and Android devices this fall, called The Elder Scrolls: Blades [Direct Link] (via TouchArcade). Bethesda describes Blades as a free-to-play title, but the developer didn't give any further details about potential in-app purchases.
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In terms of story, players will take on the role of a member of the ancient order of the Blades, tasked with rebuilding and restoring their ramshackle hometown to its former glory after being exiled from the order. Bethesda says the mobile game "contains the many hallmarks" of the series that fans know of:
...beautifully rendered, console-quality environments, powerful magic, tons of gear to collect, upgradeable skills and of course, real-time fantasy battles!
Like other Elder Scrolls games, Blades is first person and fights are controlled by using the touchscreen to slash your sword, deflect, cast spells, and more. A fighting Arena features one-on-one combat with other players in real time, and an infinite, roguelike Abyss mode hides treasures in a never-ending dungeon.
The single-player campaign takes players through the town rebuilding process, where they will be able to customize the city to their liking as it expands and even visit their friends' towns. In every mode, Blades supports both two-handed landscape and a one-handed portrait setup, and to switch between each all you have to do is rotate the iPhone or iPad.
During the company's press conference, Bethesda Games Studios director Todd Howard showed a video of the game running on an iPhone X.
Those interested have until June 15 to pre-register for a chance to be part of the game's early access program. Otherwise, Bethesda says that The Elder Scrolls: Blades will launch to the public sometime later this year. Although it's launching first on smartphones and tablets, Howard says that Blades will eventually be available on PC and console.
On the iOS App Store, Apple has featured The Elder Scrolls: Blades today in a sneak peek article, where users can also pre-order the game [Direct Link] with an expected release date of September 1, 2018. A few other iOS gaming announcements have been made at E3 this year, one including a mash-up of the Gears of War franchise and Funko Pop toys called Gears Pop.
Top Rated Comments
What Apple is offering with the AppleTV is just a bad attempt at what Nintendo was doing with the Wii: games for kids which is not the 'serious gaming' I think we are talking about.
I wish for something like that with an actual AAA story, no microtransactions, and MFI game controller support. I'd love a Switch-Lite experience like that.
If they keep updating that to the new *X part every year, it would even sneak up on the base XBO scarily fast (though probably right in time for the generation after).
It’s so exciting to see Civilization V (full retail price) and PUBG (even though it is also free to play, the genre of battle royals leaves no room to monetise in progress, only on cosmetic items to make your character “cooler”), only to have your hope of iOS as a serious gaming platform shattered by news like that.
The Apple TV in particular could be a nifty microconsole with an actively cooled A10X and controller support, and they dropped the wand controller requirement a while ago.
They just need to fund those games, maybe even have an in-house project. Or more partnerships with Nintendo, but for high end exclusives (or shared with Switch) this time, if Nintendo is willing to do that.