MMORPG: You just did a recent Fallout Shelter that brought it to PC, updated combat, and added quests. Anything new coming up for that?
PH: We might do some smaller things here or there, feature-wise, but we haven't said anything about any big new things that we're working on.
MMORPG: Regarding The Elder Scrolls: Legends – why did you decide to go with an Elder Scrolls card game? There are a lot of digital CCGs coming out nowadays, were you worried at all about being perceived as just trying to latch on to the latest trend?
PH: No, because we started this idea well before we knew about any number of these things. The initial idea and the process started before we even knew Hearthstone existed.
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MMORPG: Really? That far back?
PH: Yeah, as far as the initial conversations and spinning something up. As for why we did it, we felt like it was an interesting extension of the brand, something that wouldn't get in the way of the stuff that Bethesda Game Studios has done, or the Elder Scrolls Online.
We thought there was a lot there that a team like Dire Wolf could work with, and I think they've done a really great job in bringing Elder Scrolls elements into the game and also, thematically, the role that each of the races play, how each of the races fit the different attribute types, how that works together, and then adding to it all the different game mechanics. We just felt like it was a really fun thing that would find its own spot, and even as other card games have come online or come out before us, we've felt pretty good about where we were going to be and the kind of game we were going to offer.
MMORPG: A lot of people have talked about Elder Scrolls: Legends in the sense of, “Hey this is cool, but where's my Elder Scrolls VI? Why are you guys not doing that instead?” Not to say that you're not working on something (or several somethings), but that can often be the perception.
PH: This studio is not a vending machine. They're not a two-button vending machine, where first we press Elder Scrolls and then we press Fallout, and then we press Elder Scrolls and then we press Fallout... They're an incredibly talented studio of creative people. They've now made four games in a row, all of which were named Game of the Year, and they have a right to decide what they're interested in working on next and which direction they want to go.
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I, for one, am perfectly willing to ask questions, but I'm not going to second guess Todd Howard when he says we want to do this next, and this, and then Elder Scrolls VI happens somewhere down here. He's got reasons why, and I think once we get down the road, those reasons will be more evident to folks once we get there, or maybe not. But at the end of the day, these folks have a right to not just have to make Elder Scrolls game after Elder Scrolls game, which is why they switched to Fallout, and they have a right to stretch their legs and try something else or do something different. I know what they're working on for the next decade, and I think all of them are things to get excited about, for different reasons, and once they come out, folks will enjoy them for what they are.
